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HORATIO STEBBINS 
HIS MINISTRY AND HIS PERSONALITY 



HORATIO STEBBINS 

HIS MINISTRY 
AND HIS PERSONALITY 



BY 

CHARLES A, MURDOCK 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
(tt&e fttontfibe ptt$$ Cambridge 
1921 



COPYRIGHT, I92I, BY RODERICK STEBBINS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. 

DEC 12 1921 
©CLA653067 



DEDICATED 
TO THE FAMILY HE DEARLY LOVED 
AND THE PEOPLE HE NOBLY SERVED 



" There are souls that seem to dwell 
Above the earth, so rich a spell 
Floats round their steps where'er they move." 



PREFACE 



There are lives that should be better known and 
every memory of them jealously cherished. A debt of 
gratitude and a clear responsibility rest upon those 
whose privilege it has been to enjoy an exceptional 
influence. 

Horatio Stebbins, in his day and generation, was a 
man of rare power and lofty spirit. He was a great 
personality, with uncommon gifts of mind and heart. 
His mountainous faith was a marked characteristic. 
He united strength and tenderness in a degree that 
made him a leader of men, His absolute integrity, his 
kindliness, his serenity, his patient faithfulness, his 
fortitude, his magnanimity, his humor, made him the 
embodiment of the best religious life. For fifty years 
he preached a rational and reverent religion, with 
great power. He loved God and his fellow-men. He 
lived happily, he served gladly, he died courageously. 

For the more than thirty-five years of his ministry 
in San Francisco I knew him well and enjoyed his in- 
dulgent friendship, a blessing that demands every 
possible return. I feel my inability to set forth ade- 
quately his message and personality, but I am moved 
by a profound sense of obligation to do what I may to 
make him known as he was, to recall to those who 



X 



PREFACE 



loved him some of his characteristic sayings with in- 
cidents of his fruitful life, and especially to extend his 
influence to this generation, by emphasis on his benign 
and beautiful spirit. 

C. A. M. 



CONTENTS 



I. 


Early Years 


1 


n. 


FlTCHBURG AND PORTLAND : 1851-1864 


16 


in. 


With the San Francisco Church 


30 


IV. 


Wider Service 


49 


v. 


Ripened Years 


79 


VI. 


Close of the San Francisco Ministry 


108 


VII. 


Quiet Years ln Cambridge 


131 


VIII. 


Letters to a Son : 1881-1899 


160 


DC. 


Sayings and Extracts 


185 


X. 


Prayers 


227 


XL 


That which Remaineth : A Conference 






Sermon 


236 


XII. 


The Son of Man in his Day: A Sermon 


247 



HORATIO STEBBINS 



CHAPTER I 

EARLY YEARS 

The Stebbins families of the Connecticut Valley find a 
common ancestor in Rowland Stebbins, born in Bock- 
ing, Essex County, England, on the fifth day of No- 
vember, 1592. In the baptismal record in the register 
of St. Mary's Church there, the name is spelled 
Stebing. Rowland came to America in 1634 with his 
wife, Sarah Whiting, and two sons. After living in 
Roxbury, Massachusetts, for four or five years, he 
moved his family to Springfield, the site of which his 
friend Pynchon had bought from the Indians some 
years before. With his son John he later removed to 
Northampton, while the elder son, Thomas, remained 
permanently in Springfield. From him Horatio Steb- 
bins was descended. 

In 1685 the "outward commons " of Springfield, 
mountainous land on both sides of the Connecticut 
River, were awarded to settlers, and three sons of 
Thomas secured subdivisions. Samuel Stebbins, great- 
grandson of Thomas and great-grandfather of Horatio, 
settled on one of these subdivisions in 1741. The tract 
was nine miles from Springfield and a part of the future 



2 HORATIO STEBBINS 



town of South Wilbraham, now known as Hampden. 
In those days families were generous in size, and 
Samuel had ten brothers and sisters. His own family 
was limited to eight children, but his son and his 
grandson in the direct line had the customary eleven. 
Calvin Stebbins, one of has grandsons, married Amelia 
Adams, a young woman of character and charm. 
Horatio was their third son. Roderick, five years 
older, became a successful physician. The second son, 
Randolph, was Horatio's senior by two years. Two 
other brothers died in infancy. The mother died when 
Horatio was six years of age. By his father's second 
marriage there were three children, one of whom, the 
Reverend Calvin Stebbins, D.D., is still living. 

In the history of Wilbraham the family name ap- 
pears frequently. In 1741 the application for a parish 
meeting was signed by Samuel Stebbins, and at the 
meeting he was made an assessor. Aaron, Caleb, and 
Phineas held minor offices. The location of the meet- 
ing-house was a stirring issue. It was six years before 
Wigwam Hill triumphed, and it was twelve years 
before this site was accepted, the church built, and 
all the gallery seats were installed. 

The community was intensely loyal to the cause of 
the colonies. In 1774 a pledge against purchasing or 
consuming goods imported from Great Britain was 
signed by one hundred and twenty-five determined 
men, ten of whom bore the name of Stebbins. In 1775 
the call from Lexington was promptly answered by a 



EARLY YEARS 3 

company of volunteers. Another company rallied at 
Bennington to the relief of Gates. At least ten of the 
Stebbins family served in the Continental army. In 
church matters the family was interested, but inde- 
pendent. In 1805, when a petition for a Methodist 
Episcopal Church was presented to the town, thirteen 
of the proponents signed the name of Stebbins, and 
several of the same name signed a protest against it. 

From such an ancestry and in such a community 
Horatio Stebbins was born on August 8, 1821, of the 
eighth generation of his American family. His father 
was a well-to-do farmer, a man of good mind but lim- 
ited education. He was just and upright, respected by 
his neighbors. In his family relations he united gentle- 
ness and wise severity. He made his son a companion. 
Dr. Stebbins said of him: "He often bore me upon his 
shoulder across the running river, or led me by the 
hand through meadows where birds sang and lilies 
bloomed." 

The death of Horatio's mother in his early boyhood 
was an irreparable loss. She was a woman of fine 
temper, good sense, and great sensibility. She is said 
to have had an unusual gift for sententious expression, 
which Dr. Stebbins also possessed, perhaps inherited 
from her. He had merely a childhood recollection of 
her — a beautiful but indistinct picture of a loving 
presence as she spoke to him in tender blessing on her 
dying bed. 

Dr. Stebbins had an intense affection for his grand- 



4 HORATIO STEBBINS 

mother. In a remarkable sermon on "The End of 
Being," he says : "There is one other whose being was 
a beatific vision to my childhood heart, above all the 
accidents of earthly existence, in whom duty was a 
cheerful song, and care a happy delight ; from whose 
heart love shone like the lily in Abou Ben Adhem's 
dream. She was my grandmother. What beautiful 
conduct ! Her feet touched the earth as lightly as an 
angel's ; in her face was the strange mystery of pain 
and joy, and a piety in which all fear was changed to 
reverence. To a child's heart, beauty shone around, as 
glory on the shepherds of Judea. Thanks be to God 
that such visions and wonderings and imaginations 
may be in the heart of a child. They are the light 
beyond our earthly horizons, tingeing our morning 
heights." 

The family home was the scene of much kindly hos- 
pitality. The father was interested in religion, politics, 
and the intercourse of educated men, and he enjoyed 
entertaining visiting ministers and strangers generally. 
Polemics had not much interest for the young boy, 
but he liked to hear the ministers discuss matters with 
his father, who, to the son at least, seemed to hold his 
own. Many of these men were marked figures, who 
impressed him strongly. He remembered especially 
Minister Warner, who wore breeches, knee-buckles, 
and a queue of braided hair; also Elder Brewster, who 
had a very small salary, but always seemed to have 
money to lend; and Wilbur Fiske, the Methodist, 



EARLY YEARS 5 

who founded a college at Middletown, Connecticut. 
Mr. Stebbins was a reverent man, but he never took 
much interest in the revivals that recurred regularly. 

The home was well supplied with books, and the boy 
learned to read by reading to his father. For three 
months in the winter he attended the district school. 
He early showed ability for work on the farm, and 
could cut grain in the field, drive a team on the road, 
or fell a tree in the woods. His youthful sports were 
simple : a little hunting and fishing, a bee-hunt in the 
summer, spelling-school in the autumn, nuts and 
apples around the open fire in the winter. From all 
that is told of his boyhood life and from his later devel- 
opment, it is plain that one of his happy inheritances 
was vigorous strength. Physically and mentally he 
was sound and well. He could do all kinds of things to 
help his father, and he grew up expecting to do them. 
He was surrounded by an atmosphere of work, con- 
ducive to health of body and mind. He was generally 
a happy boy, although he had a vein of sensitiveness, 
and occasionally suffered from some imagined griev- 
ance. No doubt he missed his mother unconsciously, 
but he was a normal boy, thoughtful and serious- 
minded, who enjoyed good reading. He early showed a 
predilection for the best preachers, and was attracted 
to Channing and Dewey before he was twelve years 
old. He had a half-formed hope that some day he 
might be a minister, but definite purpose awaited 
development and the assurance of possibility. 



6 HORATIO STEBBINS 



The early unfolding of the boyish mind was recalled 
more than fifty years later, with a beautiful picture of 
his daily life. He opened his Easter sermon in 1887 
with these words : "When I was a boy, thirteen years 
old, I sat at noonday beneath the shadow of an oak on 
my father's farm to eat my luncheon and allow the 
patient oxen to rest and refresh themselves from the 
plough. I had taken with me to the field a little book, 
the first printed sermons of Orville Dewey, that great 
preacher of a former generation, whose fine sensibility, 
tender pathos, and moral insight delighted with deep 
and reverent feeling the hearts of men. I had taken my 
luncheon, and the oxen were feeding on the fine Eng- 
lish hay, that had a brightness and flavor like Hyson 
tea. I lay flat upon the ground and read : 'The world 
is filled with the voices of the dead. Though they are 
invisible, yet life is filled with their presence.' Go 
where we will, the dead are with us. We live, we con- 
verse, with those who once lived and conversed with 
us. Their well-remembered tone mingles with the 
whispering breezes, with the sound of the falling leaf, 
with the jubilee shout of the springtime. The earth is 
filled with their shadowy train." 

These days of helpfulness on the far n left many 
pleasant memories. In a sermon on "Looking Back- 
ward" he says : "Jesus affirms that 'no man is fit for 
the Kingdom of God who holds the plough and looks 
backward.' Did you ever hold a plough? It is a much 
better business than you think. On a fine morning in 



EARLY YEARS 7 

May, when the sun shines clear through genial air, 
the trees are putting forth their buds into tender 
leaves, and birds are singing in the branches, it is a 
pleasant thing to go into the field with a team of 
strong, handsome, gentle-eyed oxen, their heads high, 
their horns pure white tipped with shining brass, their 
faces so honest that you know they could never tell a 
lie. There is a picture, familiar to many of you, per- 
haps, of a ploughing team, with a man and boy. The 
boy is holding, and his father is walking by his side, 
directing him with a gesture of his hand. It is a simple 
picture of a simple scene, such as artists of great genius 
choose when they present the scenery of common life 
on the level canvas, and fascinate and surprise us with 
the greatness of the everyday sentiments of human 
nature. I have looked upon that picture many times, 
and I could imagine that I heard the father tell his son 
how to hold the plough : ' So, my lad ; bear on the 
handles gently ; cut the same breadth ; keep the same 
depth, and turn the furrow flat ; speak quietly to the 
team, and don't look behind you ; the work is here.'" 
Next to the family and the home comes the influ- 
ence of community life and customs. It was almost a 
hundred years ago, and there was far less relaxation 
from Puritan severity than we find to-day. There was 
far greater simplicity, and a rigor we know little. Life 
was a serious business. To make a living, simple 
though it was, was not easy, and hard work was a 
necessary habit of existence. Happiness, if reached, 



8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



depended little on self-indulgence. Accumulations of 
wealth were infrequent, amusements few, and pleas- 
ure hardly expected. Frivolity was frowned upon as 
something that could not be afforded. Economy was a 
part of the atmosphere, and extended to the expres- 
sion of affection. The church loomed large as a part 
of life, and, although its standards were narrow and 
its demands rigid, it nurtured strong characters. 
Waste did not weaken and luxury did not corrupt. 
The difficulty of getting anything spurred effort, 
and vigorous effort generated the strength required 
to accomplish purpose. 

Such environment and educational advantages 
might not now be considered favorable, but we are 
prone to underestimate the value of what is hard and 
difficult. Conditions may be favorable in the degree 
that they compel effort and arouse determination. 

When Horatio Stebbins was about fourteen, he 
really needed better educational privileges than the 
district school afforded, and he went to Springfield to 
attend the high school, working nights and mornings 
to earn his board. He was not satisfied with the results. 
The studies were dull, and the teachers did not inspire 
him. After about a year and a half, he felt an ambition 
to earn money, and went home to hire out on a neigh- 
boring farm. He felt that he was doing well to earn 
twelve dollars and a half a month ; and he saved a good 
part of his wages, for his wants were simple. After a 
year or more he and his brother entered into an ar- 



EARLY YEARS 9 

rangement with their father by which they worked the 
family farm on shares, and for two years they were 
moderately successful. During this period of wage- 
work and farming he kept at his studies, and finally 
applied for the place of schoolmaster in a near-by 
district. He passed the examination, and began to 
teach at a salary of fifteen dollars a month, boarding 
around after the manner of the time. He was there- 
after engaged for the four months' winter term, and 
taught for several years. 

My native town, Leominster, was about forty-five 
miles to the northeast, but his reputation extended 
even there. One winter he was engaged to teach for the 
central district. At the advent of a new master, a test 
commonly arose for actual control. On the first day of 
the term the big boys were apt to be unruly and in this 
instance they were provokingly defiant ; but the ques- 
tion was summarily solved. The new master, Horatio 
Stebbins, said little, but he quietly opened the outside 
door, grasped the ringleader, lifted him high in air, 
and threw him into a snowbank. His control was not 
further questioned. The fact that the boy was the son of 
a prominent deacon gave the schoolmaster no concern. 

Taught by teaching, ambition grew until Horatio 
finally formed the settled purpose to take a college 
course. One day, as he and his father worked together 
in the field, he broached the subject. His father was 
not unsympathetic, but gave him no encouragement. 
He was unable to give all his sons a college education 



io HORATIO STEBBINS 



and felt that he must treat them alike. Horatio re- 
mained firm in his purpose, and, realizing the difficul- 
ties to be overcome, he determined to accomplish the 
undertaking by his own efforts. 

A friend of his father's conducted an academy at 
Ithaca, New York, and thither he went, riding ten 
miles in the family buggy and walking a hundred miles 
to the Hudson River, in order to husband his small 
savings. He could not carry his belongings, and sent 
them by the stage. When he paid the charge in Ithaca, 
he found that it had cost him only fifty cents less than 
if he had taken a railway ticket and brought his bag- 
gage — a painful lesson in false economy. He began 
a course of hard study, spending one dollar and 
twenty-five cents a week for food and lodging, and 
nearly breaking down in health as a consequence. 
In six months he was obliged to go out and teach. 
Trying to make a short cut he added to his teaching 
the study of medicine, reading evenings and riding 
with the doctor during vacations. He soon became 
dissatisfied and discouraged, and returned to his home, 
feeling that he had wasted two years. For a short 
time he managed to pursue elementary studies at 
Northampton, and spent a few months pleasantly 
and profitably with his cousin, Rufus Phineas Steb- 
bins, at Leominster. Finally, having overcome many 
obstacles and made what he considered many blun- 
ders, he planted his feet more firmly on a recognized 
ladder of learning. 



EARLY YEARS 



I E 



Before the Revolution one John Phillips founded a 
preparatory school at Exeter, New Hampshire, and 
here young Stebbins made his way. His course was 
prolonged by necessary interruptions for school- 
teaching, when funds gave out, but on the whole he 
made good time. In 1845, he was invited to give 
the Fourth of July address at a celebration at Epping, 
New Hampshire. This address has especial interest as 
the earliest example of his public speaking that has 
been preserved. In many respects it was remarkable. 
He spoke with serious purpose of the principles and 
ideals of liberty. Thoughtful and prophetic, it sug- 
gested in passages and tone the Gettysburg Address. 
He said in part : "We honor our fathers most in honor- 
ing the great principles which they revered; we are 
their most worthy children when we cherish in our own 
bosoms the virtues they reverenced, when we acknowl- 
edge the power of the great truths they uttered, and 
for which they went out for voluntary martyrdom. It 
is a poor tribute to their memory that we laud their 
deeds, if the true heroism of those deeds does not dwell 
in us. Poor, indeed, is it that we speak here the praise 
of liberty unless we are able to cherish that same spirit 
of self-sacrifice which moved those heroes of the past. 
As we stand this day at their graves, let silence be the 
eloquence we utter. The spirit of the mighty past is 
here ; the heroic dead are here. They speak ; let us be 
still!' 

He then traced the rise of the star of human im- 



12 HORATIO STEBBINS 



provement, finding the key that unlocks the destiny of 
the human race to be heroic devotion to truth. "Free- 
dom is dangerous, and not to be enjoyed in passive ease 
and security. It puts man's higher powers to the test. 
Governments have usurped power, and human life 
and liberty have been baubles with which kings have 
played ; but it has been now established that there are 
principles more sacred than the divine right of kings. 
We stand among the nations asserting the highest prin- 
ciples of government under heaven, recognizing the 
rights of man more fully, a thousand years in advance 
of European civilization. We as a nation are but a 
handful of men in comparison to the myriad hosts of 
the earth who wait for the deliverance which we have 
reached, and if they ever reach it, it must be from the 
genius of our institutions." 

He concluded with faith in the general diffusion of 
the great doctrine of universal brotherhood, and in the 
spirit of inquiry and freedom of thought. 

This address is singularly impressive, coming from a 
young man in a preparatory school, and especially as 
indicating how early in life were established convic- 
tions that he firmly maintained to the end. It is also 
interesting to recall that thirty-one years later he was 
selected to speak for the great city in which he had 
cast his lot, on the occasion of the one hundredth anni- 
versary of the signing of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, which also coincided with the one hundredth 
anniversary of the founding of San Francisco itself. 



EARLY YEARS 13 

The following year he graduated from Phillips 
Exeter, honored as class orator and also delivering a 
notable address on "The Dignity of Learning," before 
the Golden Branch Society. In this he declared that 
the highest objects of education are the influences it 
exerts on character. One striking sentence was : " Man 
is not educated if his moral and religious nature be not 
developed ; he is only mangled, and if he is great, he is 
great in his deformity." 

On June 21, 1883, Dr. Stebbins enjoyed attending 
the Centennial of Phillips Exeter Academy. It must 
have been a satisfaction to him to be selected to deliver 
the oration. 

He left Exeter with little money in his purse. When 
he reached Boston, it was reduced to three dollars, 
and he probably had recourse to one of his periodical 
drafts on his school-teaching bank. He had made 
friends who believed in him and wanted to help him, 
and he allowed them to make some small advances 
during his college and divinity school days ; but he was 
mainly self-supporting, and had no false pride as to 
the character of the work that offered. The story of 
his potato patch was long told at Harvard. He re- 
ceived from Dr. Noyes, of the Harvard Divinity 
School, permission to cultivate a vacant field on 
Oxford Street, near Kirkland Street, where a wing of 
the Agassiz Museum was afterwards built. It was a 
dry summer and a hard year for potatoes in Cambridge, 
but morning and night young Stebbins carried pailful 



H HORATIO STEBBINS 

after pailful of water from the college pump to supply 
his need. Other potatoes failed to mature, prices were 
correspondingly high, and the student-farmer cleared 
one hundred dollars from his potato patch. 

Horatio Stebbins received his degree at Harvard 
in 1848. His friend Horace Davis, ten years younger, 
graduated in 1849. It mav be inferred that the nine 
years' priority represents about the time taken to 
overcome the handicap of having to earn his own way. 
How much it added to the fiber of his character can- 
not possibly be shown, but no one could know Dr. 
Stebbins without feeling that his strength and inde- 
pendence had been largely fostered by his circum- 
stances. 

There are evident advantages in postponing the 
study of theology until relative maturity. At the age 
of twenty-seven a man should have a ripened judg- 
ment and a firmer grasp on truth than is possible in 
boyhood. Such an experience as that of young Steb- 
bins was doubtless a valuable preparatory course, but 
fortunately he was able to push on now without added 
delay. He was anxious to find his place in life and to do 
his work, but he was wise in not taking advantage of 
opportunities to cut short his training and accept a 
pulpit in advance of the completion of his preparatory 
studies. He resolutely stayed by the Harvard Divinity 
School, and regularly graduated in the class of 1851. 

This was a momentous year in his life. The impor- 
tant question of location was first to be determined. 



EARLY YEARS 15 

Evidently his promise was immediately recognized, 
and he was offered the choice of several desirable pul- 
pits. One was in Boston and would have been taken 
by almost any graduate, but Horatio Stebbins had a 
way of thinking a thing out in all its bearings. He had, 
in the first place, a sincere purpose to render the best 
possible service. He felt that he was the best judge of 
his own qualifications and limitations, and that he was 
better fitted to a country pulpit than to one in a great 
city. He had known country people all his life, and 
could get at them and help them far better than the 
more sophisticated dwellers in the city. Therefore, 
after careful consideration, he accepted the call to 
Fitchburg. It was a good church in a manufacturing 
center about forty miles from Boston. He was or- 
dained a minister and settled over the church on 
November 5, 1851. Before entering his ministry he 
married Mary Ann Fisher, of Northborough. 

Miss Fisher was the daughter of Samuel Fisher and 
Mary Bowman, and the granddaughter of Joseph 
Bowman and Anna Valentine, representatives of 
families distinguished in the history of Massachusetts. 
One of her ancestors, the first of his name in this coun- 
try, was Advocate- General of the Provinces of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, 
and is buried in the burying-ground of King's Chapel, 
Boston, of which church he was a warden. Mary was a 
beautiful girl, endowed with vivacity and a playful 
sense of humor, but not robust in health. 



CHAPTER II 
FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 
1851-1864 

Horatio Stebbins was ordained in Fitchburg as a 
minister of the Unitarian Church and installed as 
colleague of the Reverend Calvin Lincoln. The Rev- 
erend Andrew P. Peabody, of Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, preached the sermon, and the Reverend 
George R. Noyes, the Reverend Converse Francis, the 
Reverend John F. W. Ware, and others took part in 
the service. It was an auspicious beginning of a long 
ministerial career. His wife wrote a glowing account of 
it to his brother, Dr. Roderick Stebbins, then living at 
Friendship, New York : 

"Horatio's ordination went off finely. The day was 
bright and clear — a beautiful autumn day. The serv- 
ices were peculiarly solemn and impressive, of the 
highest order. Everybody said so. The house was 
crowded. After the service the ministers and delegates, 
with their wives and all invited guests, went to the 
Fitchburg Hotel to dine. We stayed at the hotel until 
four o'clock, then came home to rest, in order to attend 
the levee which took place at the hotel in the evening. 
We went down about seven, and met nearly all the 
members of the parish. I never was at so large a party 
before. There were about four hundred there, and we 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 17 

were introduced to nearly all and shook hands with 
them. About nine we went down to the dining-room to 
refreshments. We had music and songs. It was a 
grand affair. It showed the good feeling of the people. 
They have all been very cordial. Nothing could be 
more so. Do not think, my dear brother, that we are 
carried away with all this. It is not so. We feel that 
we are among our friends, and feel grateful for their 
kindness and cordiality." 

Her husband added a postscript : "I find myself with 
a whole village on my shoulders. There is a great 
parish here, numbering two hundred families at least, 
and among them a good sprinkling of educated and 
clear-headed men. I have got something to do to keep 
up to their expectations. Mary is a great help to me 
by her affectionate discretion and quick sense of 
propriety without referring to rules. My dear brother, 
not a day passes in which you do not make a part of 
our conversation. We think of you and talk of you by 
ourselves, for our hearts delight to turn toward you, 
and to love you. 

" Your dear brother, Horatio Stebbins." 

His wife closed the letter with a second postscript, 
giving an interesting side of the new life: "He mar- 
ried a couple the day after the ordination, for which he 
received five dollars. That belongs to me, of course, 
and now, if anything is wanted, why, he thinks I can 
get it, as I have money enough. I hope he'll get an- 
other job soon." 



1 8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Fitchburg adjoins Leominster, where I spent most of 
my boyhood. It was about five miles from church to 
church, and the two ministers frequently exchanged 
pulpits. I found the tall young minister a most attrac- 
tive visitor. He was impressive even to a boy. His 
appearance and manner were different from those of 
any one else. His was a new pattern, and he said 
things in his own way. I was always interested in his 
texts, which were unworn by common usage. I was 
not equal to following him closely, and I knew nothing 
about originality or personality, but I now see why 
he seemed distinctive and pleasing. He used rather 
long words, I thought, and he preached to men rather 
than boys, but I liked him, for he was genuine and 
strong. 

There was poor connection between the towns, long 
before the day of street cars, and when the ministers 
exchanged they usually walked. Naturally they met 
as they went home, and they often stopped to talk. 
Years afterwards Dr. Stebbins related an experience. 
Amos Smith, our Leominster minister, was a man of 
rare kindliness, very good but bland, piously emo- 
tional, and not forceful. He was fond of Stebbins and 
wanted to help him. One day they had an earnest talk. 
As they parted, he stretched himself up on his toes, 
grasped his towering brother by his collar, and ex- 
claimed : " Stebbins, Stebbins, you must try to be 
spiritual!" "While all the time," Dr. Stebbins said, 
"I was trying to hold myself in and be moderate in 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 19 

expressing my deep feeling." However, it is to be 
admitted that in earlier years his intellect seemed pre- 
dominant. His clear, thorough thought was so evident 
that his feelings were less readily recognized, and the 
indwelling spirit was hidden as are the stars at midday. 
As he ripened he mellowed, and more and more he 
became the seer and the prophet — commandingly 
spiritual. 

Dr. Stebbins was well liked by his Fitchburg parish, 
and declined a number of calls to leave them. One of 
these calls, in 1852, was from the church in San Fran- 
cisco. It was a kind providence that left that particu- 
lar church to be ministered to eight years later by Starr 
King, and also allowed Horatio Stebbins to grow and 
ripen for twelve years, gaining firm mastery of great 
principles that enabled him powerfully to supplement 
the brilliant leadership of King. 

At the death of Dr. Stebbins the Springfield Repub- 
lican related a characteristic incident of his Fitchburg 
ministry that throws light on how he captured his first 
followers. When he was pastor in Fitchburg, accord- 
ing to this narrative, he set out to interest a close-fisted 
farmer who had long been the terror of the clergymen 
of Fitchburg and the hard case of the town. Calling 
on this farmer one day, he found him at work in the 
hay-field, and drew him into conversation about farm- 
ing, a subject with which his early experience had 
made him familiar. 

"You like farmin'? Can ye mow?" said the farmer. 



HORATIO STEBBINS 



"Oh, yes, I used to mow a little when I was a boy," 
was the reply. 

"I'd like to lay a swath with ye," said the farmer. 

"All right," replied the doctor, as he stripped off his 
coat. 

The farmer chuckled, for his prowess with the scythe 
was the pride of his life, and he dearly loved to test the 
endurance of rival mowers and exult in their downfall. 
He gave the doctor the choice of his scythes. The 
latter picked out a good one, and the two strode in 
silence to the part of the unmown field where the grass 
stood the tallest. The doctor struck in, followed by 
the farmer, and so strong and powerful were the clergy- 
man's strokes that the farmer could hardly follow him. 

"You are the only man I ever saw that could lead 
me at the end of the round," he said. "I guess I'll 
have to come to hear you preach next Sunday, by 
gosh," he remarked as he wiped the perspiration from 
his brow. 

Early in 1854 Dr. Stebbins was invited by the people 
of the "Old First Parish" of Portland, Maine, to be- 
come the associate of that remarkable and beloved 
man, Ichabod Nichols, for whom he entertained great 
admiration and regard. In later life Dr. Stebbins wrote 
of him : "He was a man of genius, too little known but 
thought by those who knew him to be one of the 
unknown great men. His mind was essentially poetic 
and saw truth as by spiritual vision. He was present 
at Baltimore when Charming preached the great ser- 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 21 



mon there — the most polished theologic weapon of 
that period. Dr. Nichols told me that before Charming 
preached, on the morning of the day, he read the ser- 
mon to him, Nichols, asking his opinion concerning 
the discourse. Dr. Nichols, in his modesty, said to me, 
'I considered that a great honor.' I always thought 
that Ichabod Nichols was as great a man as Channing, 
though without Channing's consciousness and will." 

Dr. Stebbins accepted the call, not that he was dis- 
satisfied with Fitchburg, but from a desire to be associ- 
ated with a man so eminent and to gain added oppor- 
tunity for service. 

At the installation on January 31, 1855, the sermon 
was by the Reverend George E. Ellis of Charlestown. 
Dr. Peabody, the Reverend Joseph H. Allen of 
Bangor, the Reverend Cyrus A. Bartol of Boston, and 
the Reverend Loammi G. Ware of Augusta, shared in 
the service, and the senior pastor, the Reverend Icha- 
bod Nichols, made the prayer of installation. Perhaps 
no other church in the land had had an equal record of 
long ministries. The Reverend Thomas Smith served 
for seventy years from 1725; the Reverend Samuel 
Deane, forty-five years ; and Dr. Nichols had served 
forty-six years when Dr. Stebbins became his associ- 
ate. It cannot be doubted that, but for the imperative 
call to fill the gap when Starr King fell, nine years later, 
he would have spent the remainder of his life in the 
dearly loved Portland parish and equaled the term of 
his two predecessors. 



22 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Dr. Nichols died early in January, 1859. On the 
Sunday following, Dr. Stebbins preached from the 
text: "All saw his face, as it had been an Angel.' , 
A brief extract from the concluding paragraphs ex- 
presses his estimate and admiration: "His was the 
heroism of saintship, the heroism of thought, aspira- 
tion, and obedience: a mysterious, childlike man, a 
man whose best words were spoken upon the air and 
cannot be gathered, who could hardly read his own 
sermons after the ink was dry, so did his mind, con- 
tinually renewed by the freshness of its life, throw off 
its past states and forget itself ; who in a casual talk 
would immortalize an hour by making it a seed-plot 
of principles, and fill the air around with shivering 
rays of intellectual light amid which his face was as the 
face of an angel ; a man who appreciated Christ as the 
ideal of our humanity, and not less his washing his 
disciples' feet. What testimony to the spirit his last 
days yielded, we have all heard. He died in that high 
serenity which was appropriate alike to the philo- 
sophic dignity of his life, and the simplicity and 
humbleness of his faith." 

On the 15th of June, 1763, the town of South Wil- 
braham, the birthplace of Horatio Stebbins, was incor- 
porated, and the one hundredth anniversary was 
appropriately honored. The Reverend Rufus Phineas 
Stebbins delivered the historical address and his cousin, 
Horatio, traveled from his Portland parish to be 
present. The address was too long for complete deliv- 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 23 

ery. After having read from it for what seemed a 
decent time the orator offered to desist, but was urged 
to go on, so he continued until he had spoken for two 
and a half hours, and even then left much unsaid. It 
was afterwards published with additions as a history 
of the town. After the exercises there was a dinner, 
and then more felicitations. 

Among other sons who had come far, Horatio Steb- 
bins was called upon. He said : 

"My kinsman, the orator of the day, will pardon 
me if I have seemed to listen with half-intent and 
wandering mind, for I have been everywhere to-day, 
drawn by magic powers of the air. I have been back to 
childhood. All the hilltops have blazed in recollection, 
and I see the earth and sky again as they seemed 
spread above and around my father's house! The 
hills are mountains and prop the heavens with ever- 
lasting support ; the ' goat rocks/ halfway up the slop- 
ing hillside, rise grim and gray, and my voice echoes 
in the cave beneath, peopled with shadows and half- 
terrors ; the Scantic River is a flood, rolling in might 
and majesty toward the sea ; the old mill in the moun- 
tain pass grinds away, and I grope carefully in its 
dusky light, with a childish curiosity and wonder ; and 
no huntsman ' in at the death' so thrills with tremu- 
lous delight, as I, when, drawing the bleating flock 
closer and closer, they stand, huddled beneath the 
great buttonwood, at the sheep-washing. Mr. Presi- 
dent, you never saw such a tree as stood before my 



2 4 HORATIO STEBBINS 

grandmother's door; it was a mighty tree! — the 
noontide glory rested upon its head, its branches 
reached from the east to the west, and touched the 
morning and the evening ; it was a wonderful tree, by 
midday or moonlight ; beauty, grandeur, and strength 
had their abiding-place in it ; in the winter, cold and 
bare, it stood shadowless, severe and unrelenting; in 
summer, it was benignant, kind, and merciful; it 
always had the same aspect with the heavens, and, like 
the heavens, seemed to have stood forever ! But, the 
prosaic suggestions of mature years hint that all this 
is a sort of childish wonder and exaggeration"; and 
he closed with thoughts suggested by the words of the 
Preacher, "One generation goeth and another genera- 
tion cometh, but the earth abideth forever." 

Portland always held a warm spot in Dr. Stebbins's 
heart, and he was very happy there. One of his parish- 
ioners has written of his ministry: "His manner and 
voice and words in the pulpit excited in others the high 
thoughts and emotions with which his own mind and 
heart were kindled." It was a sad day for the parish 
when it parted company with him. Dr. James De 
Normandie writes : 

"When I was settled over the South Parish in Ports- 
mouth, in 1862, Dr. Stebbins had been for seven years 
the minister of the First Parish in Portland, and had 
attracted great attention by his strong preaching and 
powerful appeals for the Union just as the Civil War 
was coming on. When I was invited to become his 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 25 

successor in 1865, I heard much about his ministry; 
and one incident, told me again and again, is strongly 
characteristic of the man. 

"In his, parish, as in all old, wealthy, conservative 
parishes in New England, there were at that time some 
whod eplored any reference in the Sunday services to 
the war or to slavery. They were bound up in com- 
mercial interests with the South or they were disturbed 
about the future of the land, and developed a sudden 
desire to hear what they called the gospel when they 
went to church, and not politics, which meant the 
events that were stirring the whole country. 

"One day a committee waited upon Dr. Stebbins to 
say that they feared there was a good deal of dissatis- 
faction about his political sermons, and that they 
might break up the parish. ' Who are the dissatisfied 
ones?' he asked. They did not care to mention any 
names ; but thought there was, among many, an under- 
current of unrest which boded no good. Some of the 
best supporters of the church might fall away. 'Who 
are the satisfied ones ? ' he asked. ' The most, of course, 
seem to be ; only some of us do not like to hear every 
Sunday about the disturbing topics of which the week 
is full.' 1 Well/ said Dr. Stebbins, ' I know one person 
who is satisfied that the minister is doing his duty, and 
that is Horatio Stebbins ; and as long as he feels this, 
such sermons will be preached. 7 " 

In 1864 Dr. Stebbins received an attractive and 
earnest call to the church in Springfield. He had a 



26 HORATIO STEBBINS 



great fondness for that city, and it at first tempted 
him, but, after considering all the circumstances, he 
felt that it was his plain duty to stay by his Portland 
church, and he declined the honor. When he attended 
the high school in Springfield he was chore boy in the 
home of Mr. George Dwight and became much at- 
tached to the family. After declining the call he wrote 
to Mrs. Dwight, his almost lifelong friend : 

Portland, March 14, 1864 

My dear Mrs. Dwight, 

Shall I pour into your ear the story of my lovesick 
heart? I know you will listen, and pity all my weak- 
ness and soothe my pain. 

The invitation of the parish at Springfield quite 
flooded me. The past all rushed in on me and carried 
me away. The thought of going in my mature youth 
to be he religious counselor of men whom I obeyed as 
a servant : the possibility that I might sit at their bed- 
side to talk of eternal things, when the world was sink- 
ing into the gray mist, quite unmanned me, in view of 
the ways of Providence and its guidance of me. I 
believe in my soul there was not a particle of conceit, 
but tears, and humility, and love, and gratitude. I 
have come within an inch of going to Springfield, but, 
when I put the question to my deliberate moral judg- 
ment, I could not find a sufficient cause. I have writ- 
ten to Mr. Chapin declining the invitation. I know 
how deeply you and Mr. Chapin will regret it, but I 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 27 

beg of you to offset your disappointment by a thought 
of the conflict in my own heart. How glad I was to see 
Mr. Dwight! Will he ever come again? Will the 
Springfield people ever want to see me again ? I hope 
they will. Now that is all over, let me assure you again 
and again of my frequent thoughts and undiminished 
love. Horatio 



The Portland years of ministry were happy and 
prosperous. Horatio Stebbins steadily grew in favor 
and in power. The parish had always enjoyed able 
ministers and high standards, and it was more than 
satisfied with his service. The period was not without 
its difficulties. At the opening of the Civil War trying 
problems presented themselves, and there was con- 
stant need for prompt decision on new issues. Men 
were troubled, for the heavens were dark, and they 
were called to act where they were in doubt. On the 
Sunday following the fall of Fort Sumter, the congre- 
gation found the pulpit draped with the American flag. 
It disturbed and shocked some of the more conserva- 
tive. They had never seen a flag in a church, and they 
felt that it was out of place. They thought the minister 
indiscreet, and promptly warned him of the danger in 
raising an issue that had nothing to do with religion. 
He had counted the cost, but his religion included 
loyalty to country, and the flag remained, with its 
full significance. 

While Horatio Stebbins was supporting the cause of 



28 HORATIO STEBBINS 



the Union in Far-East Maine, Starr King was zeal- 
ously sustaining the same cause in the Far- West. 
Suddenly, from a clear sky, came a thunderbolt of 
dismay. Starr King had fallen at his post, as much a 
martyr as any soldier called to die for his country. He 
had done his full part. California was loyal. To his 
denominational brethren the loss seemed well-nigh 
irreparable. A stricken church, representing a great 
empire, called for the best that could be given them, 
and the selection of the man who could supply the 
loss and hold what King had gained was left by com- 
mon consent to the recognized leader of the Unitarian 
denomination, Dr. Henry W. Bellows, of New York, 
a man of consummate ability and discretion. With the 
full approval of his brethren, he fixed upon Horatio 
Stebbins as the man best equipped to fill the vacant 
pulpit. Within thirty days Stebbins had accepted the 
call and given his consent to a momentous change in 
the whole course of his life. It was hard to leave Port- 
land. The people were dear to him. They had appre- 
ciated and stood by him and he had no desire to 
change, but he felt that he must not decline a clear 
duty in a great emergency, whatever regret it involved. 
Dr. Bellows went to San Francisco to comfort the 
people and prepare the way, and for four months Dr. 
Stebbins filled the pulpit of All Souls' Church in New 
York. 

On the 13th of August, 1864, he sailed for Cali- 
fornia by way of the Isthmus of Panama, taking the 



FITCHBURG AND PORTLAND 29 

oath of allegiance on the way. With him were his wife, 
their two children, Mary Louise and Roderick, and his 
wife's sister, Miss Ellen F. Fisher. They had an 
uneventful passage and arrived in San Francisco on 
the morning of September 7. 



CHAPTER III 

WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 

It is fitting that Dr. Stebbins should be allowed to tell 
the story of his reception in San Francisco and his 
first impressions. Five days after his arrival he wrote 
to Mrs. Dwight: 

Here we are, as you have already heard by the 
dispatch. Our voyage has been prosperous, with only 
the usual toils of the sea, sickness and tedium. First 
impressions are pleasant. Of course, the object of 
first interest was the church. It is beyond my ex- 
pectations, a very impressive structure, externally 
and internally; all in all, the finest Protestant preach- 
ing-house I have ever been in. It seats fifteen hun- 
dred people, is lighted from above, has a very fine 
pulpit and a baptismal font of singular beauty, indeed, 
of impressive art. 

Yesterday morning the services of installation were 
held, and were attended by an almost vast audience, 
hundreds going away unable to gain admission. The 
intensest interest was felt by the people to see the man 
whom they had taken on trust. Many I noticed weep- 
ing, as I went in, touched by memories so dear and 
tender as have rarely clustered around the name of any 
public man. It was a trying time. I went through it 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 31 

with self-possession, but this holding the heart in the 
teeth is hard and wearing, and I am glad it is over, 
though I am not sorry for a single twinge of pain my 
heart has borne. I never felt more free from anxiety 
than now. The people were evidently put to rest by 
the morning services, and they breathe free, now that 
they take up the journey again. I preached a straight, 
simple little sermon, which my wife was immensely 
delighted with. The trustees of the church, and the 
Governor of the State were in the pulpit, and an audi- 
ence before me of plucky-looking, come-if-you-dare, 
magnanimous, tender-hearted people. General Wilson 
(Long Wilson) was there and after the service, he 
shook me, and blessed me, and laughed and wept. 

Yours, H. S. 

The First Unitarian Church of San Francisco dates 
back to 1850. In the marvelous coming the year 
before of the gold-led, adventure-prompted of every 
land, many New Englanders were numbered. They 
formed the backbone of the new community, and were 
especially active in the commercial and mercantile 
life of San Francisco. It happened that the Reverend 
Charles A. Farley, a Unitarian minister formerly in 
Maine, was in the city, and when this became known 
to a group of pioneers who were loyal Unitarians and 
had pleasant memories of church gatherings "at 
home," he was persuaded to hold a public meeting in a 
hall on Sacramento Street above Montgomery, and 



32 HORATIO STEBBINS 

an advertisement in the Alta California gave notice of 
Unitarian religious services on October 20, 1850. In 
response a good number assembled, probably nearly 
all men, as few women had accompanied their hus- 
bands in the pursuit of a fortune assumed to be 
„ speedily attainable. Some of the men were acquainted, 
while others met for the first time. They enjoyed the 
simple service, which was like a breath of fresh air in a 
sultry day. One man supplied a hymn-book, another 
a collection of tunes, and a former parishioner of Mr. 
Farley led the singing with his violin. After the serv- 
ice twenty-five men remained and made plans to 
continue. On November 17 a church was organized, 
and Mr. Farley filled the pulpit until April, 1851, 
when he returned to New England and services were 
necessarily suspended. Two severe fires discouraged 
immediate effort, and it was January, 1852, before 
a fresh start was made. Then a lot was purchased, 
and the effort to secure a minister began by corre- 
spondence. That took time in those days, and it was 
August before the Reverend Joseph Harrington, who 
had accepted the call, arrived and began to preach with 
great promise. In a few weeks he was taken seriously 
ill and on November 2 he died. Correspondence was 
resumed, and a church was erected on Stockton Street 
near Clay Street. The Reverend Frederick T. Gray, 
of the Bulfinch Street Church, Boston, agreed to come 
to California for a year. He arrived in June, 1853, 
dedicated the church soon afterwards, and organized 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 33 

a Sunday School. At the end of a prosperous year, the 
Reverend Rufus P. Cutler, of Portland, Maine, became 
the minister and served nearly five years. The Rev- 
erend J. A. Buckingham then filled the pulpit for about 
ten months until the arrival of the Reverend Thomas 
Starr King, who had received leave of absence for a 
year from his parishioners in the Hollis Street Church, 
Boston. He was not in rigorous health, and hoped 
that a brief visit to California would restore him. He 
entered upon the work with interest and enthusiasm, 
and aroused immediate ardent response. The people 
flocked to the church in great numbers and their sup- 
port gave it new impulse and vigorous life. They had 
been a struggling handful. The church was in debt for 
twenty thousand dollars, on which it was paying inter- 
est at one per cent a month. Nothing daunted, Mr. 
King threw himself into his arduous work with resist- 
less vigor, and within a year he disposed of the debt 
and all discouragement. He became so impressed with 
the opportunity for service that he extended his term 
indefinitely. 

Then came the Civil War, and, when he added 
patriotic leadership to his exacting church duties, he 
became the acknowledged champion of national loy- 
alty and California's foremost citizen. He lectured in 
all parts of the State, aroused the people, and had a 
large part in cementing a sense of devotion to the 
Union that turned the scale in doubtful California. 
He was active politically, and supported with elo- 



34 HORATIO STEBBINS 

quence and wit those who represented loyalty. Se- 
cession thwarted, he turned his energy to sustaining 
the Sanitary Commission, of which his close friend, the 
Reverend Henry W. Bellows, was the head. Under 
King's brilliant leadership the Pacific Coast, with 
half a million people, gave to the Commission $1,500,- 
000, one third of the whole amount contributed. The 
rest of the Union, with 34,000,000, gave $3,000,000, 
two thirds. 

In 1863 King devoted much time and energy to 
raising money for the beautiful church on Geary Street 
near Stockton Street, which was joyfully dedicated in 
January, 1864. He had preached only seven Sundays, 
when he was attacked with diphtheria. He seemed to 
have no power of resistance and breathed his last on 
March 4, confirming a premonition that he would not 
reach the age of forty. The City, the State, and the 
Nation were plunged in grief. He was mourned and 
honored in a degree that seldom falls to the lot of man. 
On the day of his burial, courts adjourned, after extoll- 
ing his merits ; activities ceased ; and from the fortifica- 
tions in the harbor the Government authorities ordered 
a salute. A special ordinance was passed permitting 
the interment of his body beside the church which 
was itself a real monument of his love, that passers- 
by might ever be reminded of his service and sacrifice. 

Dr. Stebbins paid this tribute to his predecessor at 
an early anniversary: "Thomas Starr King is the 
happy name of one of the most interesting men that 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 35 

American society has ever known. In the union of 
solid qualities of mind with brilliant fancy sparkling 
with persuasive oratory, and with sincere and reverent 
feeling, he was almost without a peer, and perhaps 
never surpassed. His place during the Civil War gave 
his life and influence a national import, and made his 
name as brilliant as the day. Amid his great and pure 
popularity, there was not a touch of conceit, but he 
won the admiration of his fellow-men with the sweet 
simplicity of an unconscious child. The tendency of 
popularity is often to lower the tone of thought and 
action, but Mr. King was popular on a higher plane 
than any other man of his generation. He had a kind 
of homespun sympathy with all human feeling, that 
lifted other men up to him, rather than pulled him 
down. He had a shrewd knowledge of men and experi- 
ence and was at home with a hunter in the mountains, 
as in the brilliant circle of literature, philosophy, and 
religion. His death was mourned by guides at the 
White Mountains, by miners in the Sierras, by soldiers 
in the army, by philosophers and legislators. When I 
came here to the church, soon after I had landed, in 
company with Henry W. Bellows, it seemed to me as if 
the building wept." 

Horatio Stebbins performed an act of great heroism 
when he accepted the duty to succeed Thomas Starr 
King. He knew well what it implied and indulged no 
self-satisfied expectations. He knew the cost, but was 
not concerned with anything so comparatively unim- 



36 HORATIO STEBBINS 



portant as self-interest, or so unessential as personal 
success. He indulged no illusion of filling Mr. King's 
place. He stood on his own feet to make his own place 
and to do his own work in his own way, with such 
results as might come, and he was undisturbed and 
self-respecting. 

Horatio Stebbins had striking personality. He was 
a strongly marked individual. It is related that on one 
occasion, when he was awaiting the arrival of a mem- 
ber of his family at the Oakland Mole, he noticed two 
men furtively watching him. Finally they approached, 
and the bolder of the two hesitatingly addressed him : 
"Excuse me, but would you mind telling us who you 
are, as my friend and I have made a bet on it ? " They 
were so impressed by his appearance that they felt 
sure he was somebody of importance. 

Dr. Stebbins once took me with him on a May 
Meeting pilgrimage to Boston. One evening George 
William Curtis, admirably presiding, introduced suc- 
cessively, Dr. Hedge, Dr. Stebbins, and Dr. Andrew P. 
Peabody. In presenting the latter he related an inter- 
esting incident. On a certain Sunday morning young 
Peabody had supplied the Cambridge pulpit. As the 
congregation passed out, a stranger politely asked an 
evident member if he could tell him the name of the 
youthful preacher who had preached so fine a sermon. 
"That," replied the native, "was Andrew Peabody." 
"Peabody, Peabody?" exclaimed the stranger, "I 
was sure he was some body." 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 37 

Dr. Stebbins once met was never forgotten. His 
erect, towering form, his dignified bearing, his strong 
face, his expressive eyes, his polished manner arrested 
attention. His dress was not ecclesiastical, but fitted 
his calling and suggested a New England gentleman. 
It seemed never to vary. In the pulpit he was at ease, 
with no evidence of self-consciousness. He seemed 
never to strive for effect. He was reverent in manner, 
deeply earnest, but never excited or vociferous. He 
expressed his inmost feelings and his full thought, 
speaking, as he was wont to say, from the level of his 
mind. His noble voice often thrilled with deep emo- 
tion, and he was eloquent in the best sense, but nothing 
was ever assumed for effect. He spoke straight on, 
always natural and true, never unduly concerned for 
immediate results. He held himself to strict responsi- 
bility for faithful effort, but what came from it was 
beyond his control. A sentence from one of his pub- 
lished prayers embodies his deep philosophy: "Help 
us, each one in his place, in the place which is provi- 
dentially allotted to us in life, to act well our part with 
consecrated will, with pure affection, with simplicity 
of heart; to do our duty, and to leave the rest to 
God." 

It was wholly in this spirit that Dr. Stebbins took up 
the work of his gifted and brilliant predecessor. He 
was a very different type of man, less magnetic, more 
reserved, in comparison even severe, with a strong 
emotional nature held firmly in check. He had little 



3 8 HORATIO STEBBINS 

popular charm. He was independent, original, and 
of marked intellectual power. Those who did not know 
him, or who tried to patronize him, thought him cold. 
He was incapable of pretense and could not assume 
fictitious friendliness, but he had a heart that throbbed 
with sympathy and affection, and he was the staunch- 
est of friends. 

Dr. Stebbins was an inspiring preacher. His great 
faith was transfused, reenforcing that of his hearers. 
The strength of the spirit was made manifest, and 
righteousness was held up as reasonable service. His 
lofty thoughts were clothed in language of great 
beauty, poetic in imagery and majestic in diction. His 
voice was rich, full, and thrilling, organ-like in quality. 
His presence was deeply impressive in its calm power 
and reverent simplicity. Intellectual honesty was ap- 
parent in every word, as he spoke the truth he saw 
or felt. He was undisturbed by lack of appreciation. 
Such results as popular applause and admiring throngs 
were not considered, and he seemed almost distrustful 
of a crowd. His pulse never quickened when an 
occasion quite filled the church, and it gave him no 
especial satisfaction to have Easter marked by chair- 
filled aisles. He preferred the ordinary routine serv- 
ice, calm and natural, with the usual congregation 
attentive and worshipful. As a crowd did not inspire 
him to special effort, so a scanty audience did not 
depress him. Numbers had no great interest, and 
he smiled indulgently on those dependent on them. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 39 

He once said to me, "I have never been guilty of 
counting my congregation." He was by no means 
indifferent to approval and appreciation, but he never 
depended on it. He moved steadily and serenely, 
above elation at popularity or dejection at apparent 
neglect. He was never given to complaint and never 
was censorious. His people were never scolded for 
what they failed to do, nor prodded to immediate 
action. He was long-minded and patient. Nothing 
excited him to passionate denunciation or frenzied 
appeal. He never stormed at sinners, but he could be 
appropriately severe and never failed uncompromis- 
ingly to denounce wrong. His gospel was the reality 
and supremacy of the spirit, the integrity of the Uni- 
verse, and the beauty of holiness. He was fearless and 
free. He respected man and he trusted God. He 
sought abundant life, and he walked humbly, in faith- 
fulness and honor. He commanded complete respect 
and confidence, and as time went on he gained a firm 
hold on the affections of his parishioners and the regard 
of the community. 

It was remarkable that a body of people so devoted 
to King, should readily accept a successor with so 
different a personality, but the substitution had little 
effect on personnel or numbers. Mr. King's best 
friends became the strongest supporters of Dr. Steb- 
bins and the church went steadily on. One reason for 
this was that the difference was more apparent than 



4 o HORATIO STEBBINS 

real, more superficial than essential. Their funda- 
mental message was the same. Their idea of God, their 
regard for man, their love of truth, and their trust in 
Goodness were the same. No one was called to give 
up accepted faith or to accept new and strange teach- 
ings. Differences in manner or manners and diversity 
of gifts were unimportant, and the unity and harmony 
of the church was undisturbed. Again, both were loyal 
to the denomination, but made it secondary to religion. 
Their perspective was much the same, and to both the 
individual was responsible to God as a human being, 
and not as a church member. Dr. Stebbins looked 
askance at one who professed religion as something 
special and uncommon. He ministered to humanity 
and placed manhood first. He had no great regard for 
organizations to promote mere church activity, and 
was somewhat suspicious of people who were anx- 
iously busy and restless. He had little sympathy with 
the specifically institutional church. His reliance was 
in the spirit, and he appealed to the spiritual power in 
man for its translation into life. 

He sympathized with all sorts of people and ap- 
pealed naturally to an uncommonly wide circle of 
individuals. He was once walking with a lady, one of 
his parishioners, when a man, shabby in appearance, 
bowed effusively and asked for a moment's conversa- 
tion. When Dr. Stebbins rejoined the lady he said : 
"It seems as if I were father-confessor to all the 
broken-down hackmen in town. He had to tell me his 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 41 

troubles. He is doing better, but sometimes he falls 
down." The incident was typical. 

When Starr Kingwason his death-bed, self-possessed 
and calm, he asked that no indebtedness should remain 
on the new church building to harass his successor, 
but that, free of all debt, it should be his monument — 
he wanted no other. Dr. Stebbins came with the 
understanding that this had been done, but the failure 
of a few persons to meet their pledges had left a con- 
siderable sum unpaid and the situation was embarrass- 
ing. Dr. Stebbins felt strongly that it was vital for 
the future of the church to have this debt paid. This 
was finally accomplished, and the necessary effort 
resulted in a fixed policy that debt should not be 
allowed to accumulate. If at the end of any year a 
deficit develops members of the church subscribe the 
amount needed and start anew. This habit has had 
great advantage. 

The domestic life of Dr. Stebbins was very beautiful. 
He came to California accompanied by his wife, al- 
ready, however, in broken health, and a dearly loved 
son and daughter. The long illness and the death of his 
wife, and the marriage and death of his daughter were 
severe trials, but not consuming fires. Paul adjured 
the Ephesians "having done all, to stand." Dr. 
Stebbins did all, and stood. His son Roderick, named 
for his beloved brother, was a great comfort. Their 
relations were always close. When the small boy 
reached the church-going age, he would walk home 



42 HORATIO STEBBINS 

holding his father's hand. One day his father had 
preached from the text: "I and my Father are one." 
The happy boy said: "I could understand that. He 
and his father were one just as you and I are one." 
Dr. Stebbins watched the education and development 
of the thoughtful youth with deep sympathy and was 
thankful when he chose the ministry as his life-work. 
Roderick's early settlement in Milton, Massachusetts, 
was a great satisfaction to him, and it was a blessing to 
be near him in the closing days of earthly hf e. 

Dr. Stebbins was at first domiciled at 930 Clay 
Street, above Stockton Street, in what was at that time 
a favorite residential district. In 1870 he took a suit- 
able house at 16 Ellis Street, which he occupied for 
seven years, and it was here that his wife, who had 
long been in failing health, died. Her sister, the chil- 
dren's <£ Aunt Nellie," died here also. Dr. Stebbins 
then removed to 739 Bush Street. Here, and after- 
wards at 831 on the same street, he lived for eight 
years, and then settled at 1609 Larkin Street to 
remain seventeen years, until he went back to New 
England. During all his long residence in the city he 
occupied only rented houses. He said he considered 
it too presumptive of permanency for a minister to 
buy a house, even if he could. 

He thoroughly enjoyed hospitality. He took delight 
in having his friends at his table, and his wonderful, 
happy table-talk made memorable every opportunity 
to enjoy it. He lived well but frugally. His tastes were 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 43 

simple and he was never self-indulgent, but one thing 
he considered essential : he wanted to keep warm, and 
delighted in a wood fire. He followed the inherited 
custom of New England, and in the fall of the year 
stored his basement with a good supply of cord-wood 
for winter use. Sometimes the limited size of his grate 
fireplace necessitated short lengths, but he enjoyed to 
the full what he could get. Another simple indulgence, 
from which he derived surprising satisfaction, was a 
cup of tea of good blend well brewed. He was partial 
to a certain brand of English breakfast tea, generally 
had it, and finished his cup with apparent reluctance. 
I recall an occasion when he and his wife were the first 
dinner guests of a friendly couple essaying housekeep- 
ing. The simple dinner, cooked on a tiny oil stove, had 
been fairly satisfactory, and when the cup of tea was 
served the pains taken gained rich reward. Tasting it 
lingeringly, he turned to Mrs. Stebbins, saying, with a 
tone and emphasis all his own, " That, my dear, is a cup 
of tea! " He was the most appreciative of mortals, and 
the most courteous, nor did he reserve his courtly 
manners for friends and favorites. He was as polite 
and considerate to his cook or the policeman on the 
beat as he was to his banker or the queenliest lady 
parishioner. 

I remember that once, when he returned from an 
Eastern trip, I inquired how he was impressed by a 
man whom I knew he had met. He shook his head as 
he said: "I was disappointed in him; I heard him 



44 HORATIO STEBBINS 

speak discourteously to a cab-driver." He was a con- 
sistent democrat, always considerate and kindly, and 
so it happened that not a man who ever sawed wood 
for him, or drove his hack, or checked his baggage, 
failed to be his admiring friend. 

Dr. Stebbins was a very tolerant man. He seemed to 
look for, and find, the good in every one, but there were 
some things for which he could make no excuse ; and 
he was capable of withering scorn. If a man was mean, 
if he abused a trust for personal advantage, he need 
not expect to go unrebuked. Dr. Stebbins could be 
severe, but he reserved his severity for occasions when 
it was clearly demanded. He measured men by no 
petty standard, he was by nature generous, he recog- 
nized limitations and was patient with mistakes, but 
a sneak or a hypocrite he could not treat with com- 
placence. 

He was outspoken, apt to say what he thought, and 
not inclined, even at a funeral, to hold back what 
he really felt and believed. He reverenced the truth 
supremely, and had no tact that involved dishonesty. 
He never sought to please by agreeing with what was 
popular but doubtful. His integrity was fundamental. 

Dr. Stebbins was not only an able preacher, but also 
a most sympathetic minister. To those bereaved by 
death he brought rare power of comfort. His feelings 
were deep and tender, and the tone of his voice and 
the clasp of his hand brought assurance of sincerity 
and love. As he mourned with those who mourned, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 45 

he rejoiced with those who rejoiced. At a wedding he 
was very happy, although the ceremony was always 
impressively serious, never taken as a matter of little 
importance. 

Dr. Stebbins was a noticeable figure on the streets 
of San Francisco. He was an inch over six feet in 
height, well-proportioned, well-dressed, deliberate in 
his movements. He was courteous and considerate, 
and seemed never hurried or worried. He was always 
ready to exchange a cordial pleasantry with an ac- 
quaintance, but, as he had not a retentive memory for 
people he had merely met, and never assumed a 
warmth of feeling for effect, it happened sometimes 
that with no basis of fact he was thought unresponsive. 

While essentially a serious man, engrossed in his 
great calling, he was not burdened by it. He loved it 
and was at peace with the world which he found beau- 
tiful and kindly. He met its trials trustingly and 
enjoyed life from day to day. In moments of whole- 
some relaxation, his mind played with ideas and he 
had a fund of characteristic humor, not nimble and 
trifling, sometimes even ponderous, but always kindly 
and considerate. He was often playful and whimsical. 
Quaint expressions, apt and unexpected figures of 
speech stored from his boyhood in New England, or 
original sayings packed with wit and wisdom made his 
conversation continuously attractive. The side of his 
character which made him often the care-free and 
delightfully entertaining center of a group of friends 



46 HORATIO STEBBINS 

was unsuspected by strangers. While naturally re- 
served and dignified, he was quite capable of genial 
sportiveness. 

At my marriage, in 1871, he was an invited guest. It 
happened that I had chosen the daughter of devoted 
Presbyterians, and it was considered proper to call 
upon their minister to officiate. Dr. Stebbins gladly 
came, and added to the enjoyment. In great good 
humor he rallied his brother minister. "Never mind, 
Mr. H., you shake the bush, and I'll catch the bird." 
The saying was not intentionally prophetic, but it 
proved so. 

He once said to me, speaking in frank confidence of 

one we both greatly respected, " G is an absolutely 

honest man. It would be impossible for him to be 
otherwise, but he would not be a gentleman if he 
should five a thousand years. He takes to culture as a 
wild boar would take to a currycomb. " 

He was friendly with a contractor, who had been 
greatly perplexed over a lawsuit brought against him 
in connection with the construction of one of the build- 
ings of the University of California. Mr. George A. 
Nourse, a trusted parishioner, was attorney for the 
contractor, who poured out a tale of woe. Dr. Steb- 
bins listened patiently, and then, placing his hand on 
his friend's shoulder, said : " Never mind ! Nourse and 
I will stick to you as long as you have a cent." The 
story may lose in the telling, but the answer did not 
fail in its purpose. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH 47 

He often mingled philosophy with his humor. One 
day we dined together at a poor hotel at Merced. He 
speared a potato and prepared to divest it of its 
jacket, but it proved hopelessly soggy. He eyed it 
whimsically and turned to me, and said, with an ex- 
pressive glance, "Charles, I never eat a potato simply 
because it is a potato." 

While Dr. Stebbins was fond of nature and often 
aroused to truly poetic f eeling in response to its beauty, 
he found his greatest enjoyment in human nature. 
Man was his chief interest, and when he came back 
after a summer vacation he was much more likely to 
recount human experiences than to recall grandeur or 
loveliness of land or sea. He found the Yosemite 
Valley tremendously impressive, but I think that he 
enjoyed two touches of human nature still more. One 
discovery was a stage-driver, a real character who evi- 
dently reciprocated the interest he aroused. Dr. Steb- 
bins shared the front seat with him, and they "talked 
horse" almost exclusively. A remark of Mr. Horace 
Davis disclosed the fact that his companion was a 
clergyman, whereat the driver turned and asked, 
"Are you a minister?" The doctor replied, "Yes, 
that's what I am when I'm at home." "Well," rejoined 
the driver, "I don't know what kind of a preacher you 
are, but there's a blamed good horse-man spoiled." 

The other was the "remarks" of a tourist in an 
ancient hotel register. As I remember, it modestly 
read something like this: "John Studebaker, South 



48 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Bend, Indiana, president of Studebaker Brothers, who 
manufacture twenty-four complete wagons every day ; 
six hundred every month ; seventy-two hundred every 
year ! — And yet this is nothing, compared with the 
wonders of the Almighty as displayed in the Yosemite 
, Valley. ,, 



CHAPTER IV 



WIDER SERVICE 

Dr. Stebbins, it is to be remembered, came to Cali- 
fornia before the ending of the Civil War. Thanks- 
giving Day of 1864 gave him an opportunity to express 
his sentiments on the grave national issues of the day. 
His text was from Second Samuel, XL, 7 : "David de- 
manded how Joab did, and how the people did, and 
how the war prospered.' , His discourse was greatly 
approved, and, in accordance with the request of 
Governor Low and others presented the following 
morning, it was published. It shows a sagacious ex- 
amination of immediate conditions and has especial 
interest as indicating his discerning judgment of Lin- 
coln, a judgment amply confirmed later. After a keen 
and appreciative analysis of Lincoln's character, it 
closed with these words : 

"When I say this of a President of the United States, 
assailed, abused, misrepresented, hindered, as he al- 
ways is, by those who have no office but to speak evil 
and found all their hopes on his fall ; when I say, that, 
in spite of all this, our President has gained in the con- 
fidence and respect of the country, I award to him the 
sublimest honors of moral victory over men ! There- 
fore I rejoice in him, as the exponent of the people, 
and as a part of God's providence with the country." 



So HORATIO STEBBINS 

On April 23, 1865, Dr. Stebbins again delivered a 
memorable sermon in which he set forth the essential 
moral significance of Abraham Lincoln's life and char- 
acter. He referred to the special characteristics by 
which obstacles were overcome and signal achieve- 
ments reached. He found in him "a certain theme of 
mind, a fine instinct for what is, and a belief in justice." 
And he continued, in sentences here somewhat con- 
densed: "An instinct of truth, which guides as surely 
as attraction holds the stars, pervades all Mr. Lincoln's 
thinking and all his jest and anecdote and drollery. 
It is the quality that enables him to state just what he 
thinks and what he means. The principles of our 
government and the nature of the war have never been 
stated so clearly as by him, and no man has seemed to 
have so fair and consistent a record as he. When by 
events he came to administration of affairs, he took no 
double or devious course and no backward step. No 
man was more conscious than he that he was raised up 
on the tide of events, and he knew that all his power 
lay in the spirit of the time. He held to his theme so 
surely, so naturally, that events not only guided him, 
but they were the unfolding of his own convictions. 
As a natural result of Mr. Lincoln's instinct of truth he 
believed in man. Never was a man more in sympathy 
with the people or more completely imbued with those 
ideas of social justice and individual rights which are 
the spirit of our institutions and their only ground of 
right to be. The prevailing political faith of the coun- 



WIDER SERVICE 51 

try in past years has been a stout advocacy of liberty. 
There has been no persuasion, strong and invincible, 
that justice is a component part of the idea of freedom. 
There has been no idea in this country of freedom as a 
principle of conservatism and development. Amid the 
shock of civil war God is teaching us what we have 
been slow to learn, that man is the chiefest thing on 
earth. To raise him up to the rights, the privileges, and 
the immunities of existence is the great purpose of 
social order, and the government which is not filled 
with that purpose has no right to be." 

Dr. Stebbins was soon in demand for addresses 
before various organizations. He rested satisfied with 
no perfunctory performance, but always had some- 
thing of real value to say, worth the hearing. The 
Society of California Pioneers rejoice in and glorify 
the past, harking back to the early days and felicitat- 
ing themselves on their pioneering. In September, 
1865, he addressed them and said, among other things 
well to heed : 

"Nothing can save us from Spanish decline and 
Mexican littleness but communication with the world, 
that rapid and sure intercourse with human society 
which assimilates the interests of mankind. We must 
boldly affirm this, not in lugubrious strain of croaking, 
but as the firm ground of our hopes concerning the 
growth and prosperity of our State, namely, that 
the powers that have made her prosperity thus far 
have done their best, and that no great impulse of 



52 HORATIO STEBBINS 

human affairs denoting permanent progress can be 
felt here, until the great highways are opened over sea 
and land, and the world — the many-sided industries, 
arts, commerce, and literature — is imparted to us." 

On May 25, 1865, Dr. Stebbins was invited to make 
the principal address at the dedication of the magnifi- 
cent Mountain View Cemetery at Oakland. It was 
received with great favor, and it has permanent 
worth as indicating his calm and trustful view of 
death and immortality. He expressed the conviction 
that it is man's distinction and the privilege of intelli- 
gent faith to look forward with composure to the final 
dissolution of his earthly frame. It is the distinction of 
his nature, elevated by religious thought, to contem- 
plate death as an event in fife and no accident of 
chance, nor calamity of darkness. It is permitted to 
him to prepare for that event as inevitable though 
uncertain in its date. This is striking testimony to the 
truth that life is moral and disciplinary. 

"The moral and religious import of death is that 
all man's labors, enjoyments, and possessions are to be 
pursued and held as subject to a higher power. It, 
mingles the Divine Providence in the daily thoughts 
of men, urging them out beyond the domain of time 
and sense to the realities of spiritual existence. Thus 
death, by its constant presence in human life, is the 
great teacher of man. It is this confidence of man in 
a never-ending existence that not only saves our 
human lot from being unendurable, but makes exist- 

1 



WIDER SERVICE 53 

ence cause of gratitude and joy. In the light of this 
truth every man can thank God that he is, and the 
darkest griefs may be illuminated by hope, the heavi- 
est griefs may be borne with patience, and defeated 
good may believe that its promise will yet be kept." 

Among the adjustments necessary in removing to 
California is acquirement of the requisite composure 
to meet gracefully an earthquake when it seeks recog- 
nition. A New Englander, through long experience, 
grows immune to terror from electric bolts. He is 
used to the fateful flash from above, but he has no 
experience with insecurity from below, and even a 
slight tremor is unnerving. It frequently happens 
that our shocks come conveniently in the night when 
those who turn pale do not show it, or where the 
sufferer recovers in pleasant privacy, but sometimes 
he is compelled to exhibit his emotion where all may 
see whether nerve or nerves control. The earthquake 
of October 8, 1865, occurred on Sunday, about the 
time of dismissal after morning service. Those who 
heard Dr. Stebbins that morning were singing the 
closing hymn. A sudden tremble increased sharply. 
The building was grasped by tremendous power and 
severely wrenched. Through my mind flitted the 
thought, What weakness there must be in a large 
unsupported roof ! A good congregation with blanched 
faces awaited results. It was a moment of nervous 
terror, which would have quickly passed if the central 
pipe in the organ at the preacher's right had not top- 



54 HORATIO STEBBINS 

pled from its place and vaulted over the choir, falling 
into the space in front. That was enough. No one 
waited for the benediction or other formal dismissal. 
The church was emptied with great promptitude. 
Many were soon standing in the street with hymn- 
books still in their hands. A startling coincidence was 
that the interrupted hymn was a paraphrase of the 
passage from Isaiah portraying the end of all things, 
when the elements shall melt with fervent heat. We 
held evening services at that time, and for the last 
hymn that evening Dr. Stebbins gave out the one left 
unfinished in the morning. We sang it to the troubled 
end, and the usurped benediction was then calmly 
pronounced. 

All sorts of persons called on Dr. Stebbins for all 
sorts of service. In a letter of that pathetic humorist, 
Samuel L. Clemens, to his mother at St. Louis, written 
on December 4, 1866, he says : "I am thick as thieves 
with the Rev. Dr. Stebbins. I am ninning on preach- 
ers now altogether; I find them gay. Stebbins is a 
regular brick. Whenever anybody offers me a letter 
to a preacher I snarUe him on the spot." From the 
context it is indicated, that, in view of a contemplated 
trip to New York, he had the inspiration to take letters 
of introduction to ministers there. He evidently had 
special designs on Dr. Bellows, and called on Dr. 
Stebbins to secure credentials. What he goes on to 
write bears every mark of the source of its inspiration. 
"I shall make Dr. Bellows trot out the fast nags of 



WIDER SERVICE 55 

the cloth for me when I get to New York. Bellows is 
an able, upright, and eloquent man, a man of imperial 
intellect and matchless power. He is Christian in the 
true sense of the term." What a difference and gain to 
Mark Twain and the world it might have made if to 
the chemical content of his soul he had added at this 
time a liberal infusion of the fundamental trust and 
love of Stebbins and Bellows I 

It must be borne in mind that the San Francisco 
church had stood like a lone lighthouse on the Pacific 
shore for fourteen years before Dr. Stebbins came, and 
it was two years more before he had a neighbor nearer 
than St. Louis. In May, 1866, he went to Portland 
and counseled with the fine group of people who had 
prepared the way there for a church. They raised 
twelve hundred dollars, bought a lot on the edge of 
the woods, and authorized him to find their minister. 
He corresponded with the Reverend William G. Eliot, 
of St. Louis, and with his son, Thomas L. Eliot, 
then about to enter the ministry. In December, 
1867, when the chapel was completed, the worthy son 
of a worthy sire came out, by the way of Panama, to 
become their preacher. At that time we were experi- 
menting in San Francisco with theater preaching, 
then tried out generally, and we held successful meet- 
ings at the Metropolitan Theater. The audiences were 
large and the singing led by our devoted basso, 
Wunderlich, was truly 1 1 wonder ful." People seemed 
to like it, but interest fell off as the novelty waned and 



56 HORATIO STEBBINS 

they showed no disposition to graduate into the church. 
We considered it not worth the cost and trouble. The 
experiment is connected in my mind with the sight 
one Sunday of an attractive young couple in a promi- 
nent box who, I found on inquiry, were the Eliots on 
their way to Portland. For the next ten years the 
Portland church was the only one to keep us company. 
In 1877 Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego 
were added to the list. 

Up to 1869 we always spoke of our minister as "Mr." 
Stebbins, for he was not one to allow a title not wholly 
and regularly authorized, but his deserts were then 
recognized by Bowdoin College which conferred upon 
him the degree of D.D., Doctor of Divinity. 

On one matter, at least, Dr. Stebbins had a well- 
settled opinion that was quite at variance with popu- 
lar prejudice. He was not at all in sympathy with the 
Chinese exclusion legislation and he never missed an 
opportunity to express his feeling that a man of China 
is still a man. On December 1, 1866, a banquet given 
to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company w r as attended 
by leading citizens and the officials of the company, 
and also by the Chinese Consul and other distinguished 
representatives of the Orientals. Captain Eldredge, 
Governor Stanford, and others spoke. To Dr. Steb- 
bins was assigned the eighth regular toast: "Com- 
merce the Ally of Religion and Civilization." Before 
his formal reply he said: "I but reiterate the senti- 
ment of every man here when I express the pleasure 



WIDER SERVICE 57 

I feel in meeting merchants of China in the mutual 
exchange of good-will with merchants of San Fran- 
cisco. May that interchange never cease, so long as 
value seeks equilibrium on the earth, or the wind of 
popular liberty rushes to fill the vacuum of despotism." 

He had further opportunity for such expression in 
1868 at the remarkable reception given to Anson 
Burlingame and the Chinese Embassy at the Lick 
House. He was very happy on such occasions when he 
lifted public consideration of large subjects to a level 
of statesmanship, and made shuffling politicians seem 
contemptible in comparison. He was greatly respected 
by broad-gauged men and thinkers in public life and 
was always heard with attention. 

A little later Japan sent an Embassy Extraordinary 
to the United States. The distinguished representa- 
tives were royally entertained, and the culminating 
feature in San Francisco was a banquet. Over it pre- 
sided the Governor, Newton Booth, and among the 
distinguished speakers was Dr. Stebbins. His brief 
but stirring remarks aroused enthusiasm, and also 
some antagonism. The Bulletin account, omitting the 
introductory words and the frequent interjection of 
applause, follows : 

"An ancient empire outside of Christendom, num- 
bering more than thirty millions of souls, with a civili- 
zation unique, peculiar, having laws, polity, manners, 
and religion its own, standing in august and sullen 
grandeur apart from the general movement of the 



58 HORATIO STEBBINS 

world's life, with a history running back to the earliest 
periods of recorded time, and beyond into dim twilight 
of the mythopeic age ; a history and civilization com- 
pared with which Christendom itself is young, even 
the latest child of time; whose royal line of kingly 
blood flowed down through centuries before Caesar 
entered England, before Moses received the Law in 
the glory-smitten heights of Sinai, sends forth an 
embassy of peace to all nations, to observe the arts, 
industries, manners, customs of the modern age ! 

"To a poetic imagination, it seems a repetition of the 
ancient story of the wise men, the astronomic Magi, 
led by a star to the place where the young child lay, 
for that star still leads mankind where the ages are 
born, and stands above the place where the best 
thoughts of humanity are nurtured. 

"Hail ! illustrious descendants of the ancient stock, 
inspired with wonder and desire! The motive that 
impels you is a more fragrant gift than aromatic spices, 
frankincense and myrrh ! Welcome to this western 
shore of the Western World ! this cradle of the latest 
born of nations ! 

" Governor, the manifest suggestion of this occasion 
is the vast appliances of intelligence which have been 
made within the last century to overcome the ob- 
stacles of time and space, and which, while they per- 
fect the earth as the abode of man, make such a meet- 
ing as this possible. Vast mountain chains, which 
presented impassable barriers between nations and 



WIDER SERVICE 59 

races, have been dissolved by noble engineering, and 
the sea, 'that flaw in the planet/ no longer separates 
the nations. Floating bridges swing on it through 
all the latitudes, binding the peoples of the earth 
together in a common destiny. Our transcontinental 
road, together with the Suez Canal, has practically 
annihilated one third of the periphery of the globe, 
and there are those here who shall not taste death 
before the magnetic current shall be made complete, 
and the spark of human intelligence, unquenched by 
multitudinous waters, shall report itself around the 
earth in advance of the sun ! 

"The inner idea of this vast conquest is the unity 
and ultimate perfectibility of the human race. Com- 
merce, which is the inspiration of man's noblest 
achievements over nature, is simply the expression 
of the mutual dependence of mankind ; the reaffirma- 
tion of that which divine philosophy teaches, that no 
man, no community, no nation, no race, can fulfill 
its destiny in an exclusive and isolated life. As the 
globe is a unit of organism, holding every island, sea, 
and continent in one organic whole, so Commerce, 
which is the expression of the mutually dependent life 
of mankind, draws the populations of the earth by the 
attraction of common want and a common end. Al- 
ready the exclusive system gives signs of modification 
under the benign influence of well-regulated interests 
and mutual regards. From henceforth no exclusive, 
isolated, independent civilization can endure. Before 



6o HORATIO STEBBINS 



the spirit of the age its adamantine walls are dust that 
vanishes at a breath. 

"One word more! Nobody is here but ourselves, 
and that one word I will say. We here are providen- 
tially placed in near relation with these exclusive 
civilizations. The changes wrought by transcontinen- 
tal communication have changed forever the area of 
commercial distribution for this city. We can never do 
the business of the Mississippi Valley, and probably 
we shall not extend our inland commercial area 
beyond the summit of the great mountain chain. To 
compensate for that, we must gather up the islands of 
the sea and push our trade to the unnumbered popu- 
lations of the Asiatic world. But our position is 
anomalous. While we are here to-night, wooing the 
commerce of old empires, you, Governor, as the rep- 
resentative of one political party, and ex- Governor 
Haight, as the representative of the other, are com- 
mitted to a policy to exclude these people from our 
shores! The position is absurd and ridiculous. As a 
policy, it is nonsense ; as a principle, it is nowhere. It 
is rag-tag and bob-tail. If any of you cheap politicians 
have won a penny by it in the passions of an hour, 
beware when you put that penny in your purse, lest 
the eagle on the reverse of your coin stick his talons 
through and clutch the face of liberty !" 

The account says "prolonged applause," but it was 
a daring challenge to the political leaders, and a 
rebuke to the politicians that they little enjoyed. 



WIDER SERVICE 61 



Dr. Stebbins was deeply touched and severely 
tested by the death of his very dear brother, Randolph, 
in 1870. His grief was profound. On April 24 he wrote 
to his half-brother in New England : 

Dear Calvin, — 1 am wading heart-deep through 
my griefs, and, although I almost lose my breath 
sometimes, I keep on my feet. I am anxious to learn 
all little details of the family and the burial, even to the 
very color of the fresh clean earth that received his 
precious body to its kind embrace. Did you pray at 
the funeral? I don't know whether I could if I had 
been there, but my heart longs to mingle and flow in 
the common stream of fraternal sympathy. Never 
was sight of Immortality so clear as it is now, and 
never have so great consolations soothed my aching 
breast. Yet my morning hours have a strange sense 
of loneliness, as if the very sunbeams were withdrawn 
from the day, and my night-watches are as if the whole 
universe of worlds were still. This eclipse of earthly 
brightness reveals the eternal spaces as no midday 
splendor can, and I am impressed, inspired, and 
encouraged by the thought of the vast unknown and 
unquarried truth that lies in the abysses of our 
nature. Neither the height of the stars, nor the depth 
of the earth can measure it. What a power is this 
personality, into communion with which we have been 
so tenderly brought! How it sways my heart, away 
across the world, giving me some conception of the 



62 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Infinite personality whose inspiration is the life of 
all intelligence and whose power sustains all things. 

Three days later he writes : 

My dear Calvin : Yours came this morning. It is a 
great comfort to read your tender story of grief. In 
Randolph we have been, and are, indeed, blessed. 
Though there seems something gone from the very 
air of my daily life, I yet feel as if something new had 
come to me in the depth of my affection and the 
serenity of my love. How the words of Christ are ful- 
filled. "If I be lifted up, I shall draw all hearts unto 
me!" I had a very full letter from Roderick [his elder 
brother] three days ago. He is, as you say, the ap- 
pointed consoler of us all, an angel of God, and divine 
messenger. When I think of his sorrows, and his 
broken life, my heart aches, and loves its aches, for 
him. Do write to him often, Calvin, and keep bright 
the chain of fraternal love. You speak of Lucinda's 
grief. Tell her to be comforted by sorrow itself, and, 
in the pain of earthly ties sundered, to learn the joy of 
self-loss. If I could only sit down by your side, O 
unconquerable space ! Horatio 

On May 18, he wrote again : "Your little reference 
to Randolph's grave is comforting. I have stood there 
in imagination at sunrise and sunset and midday. I 
have walked through the meadow and orchard, and 
lain down on the green grass and wept. I have risen 



WIDER SERVICE 63 

up from the earth with strength and peace, and found 
the way of duty full of comfort and eternal power." 

In October he mentions to his brother that he has 
been under the pressure of considerable personal trial 
in the affliction of friends, and adds : "Since Randolph 
died, it has seemed as if the sorrows of men were laid 
on me with redoubled weight, and that God would 
make me minister to an innumerable company of 
broken-hearted. I am so poor in all perfunctory ways, 
and so incapable of conventional methods of ministra- 
tion, that every human experience seems to fall on my 
naked heart. Don't think I am sentimental or weak : 
I enjoy the pain, and bear glad testimony of its 
superiority to the flesh." 

Dr. Stebbins was uncomplaining, but he must have 
suffered from loneliness in the lack of ministerial 
association. He saw few ministers of his own faith. 
Occasionally one came to the Coast for a brief period 
of sight-seeing, and the most was made of such visits, 
but they were, like other angels' visits, few and far 
between. In the meantime he had practically no pro- 
fessional intercourse. There were a number of more or 
less liberal individuals among the orthodox clergy, 
but for the most part they held aloof. His attitude 
was decidedly friendly. He was never antagonistic, 
and never indulged in controversy or attack, but 
friendliness in return was apparently more than he 
could expect. The Catholic representatives seemed 
more inclined to fraternize with him than others. 



64 HORATIO STEBBINS 

Dr. Stebbins had respect for the opposite pole of his 
faith, and felt that there was no logical ground 
between a church of reason and a church of authority. 
That he was willing to do his part in maintaining 
friendly relations is established by an incident revealed 
after his death. 

Dr. George C. Adams was the minister of the First 
Congregational Church of San Francisco when Dr. 
Stebbins died, and he sent to the Congregationalist a 
touching tribute. He related the courtesy and kindli- 
ness of a prompt call made by Dr. Stebbins when 
Adams came, a stranger to the city. The cordial wel- 
come had given him courage and confidence. Soon 
afterward Dr. Stebbins accepted an invitation to a 
reception given by the Congregational Church. Sev- 
eral other ministers had referred in their addresses to 
the ministers present who represented various other 
churches, but all stopped short before they reached 
mention of the Unitarian. It was very noticeable and 
the discourtesy made the audience uncomfortable. 
Finally Dr. Stebbins was called upon to speak. He 
gave no indication of having felt any slight. "He rose 
and spoke so ably and on so much higher ground 
than had been taken by any other speaker that the 
audience were charmed. He made without question 
the best address of the evening. " Dr. Adams added : 
"His influence was great, his integrity was unques- 
tioned, and people of every faith and no faith believed 
in him, and knew he was like the Master." 



WIDER SERVICE 65 

It was a red-letter day when men of his own faith 
stood by Dr. Stebbins in his pulpit, and whatever 
their high reputation in the church might be, we had a 
feeling that he never suffered in comparison. In the 
long course of Dr. Stebbins's service he welcomed and 
entertained most of the Unitarian leaders, and others. 
I recall Peabody, Furness, Eliot of St. Louis and 
Eliot of Cambridge, Hale, Chadwick, Savage, Joseph 
Henry Allen, Fenn, Williams, Camp, Alger, and 
many others. Dr. Stebbins was a flattering host. He 
was happy in having his friends around him, and the 
atmosphere of his home was delightful. 

Dr. Stebbins heartily enjoyed the visit of Ralph 
Waldo Emerson in April, 1871, when he came with his 
daughter in company with Mr. John M. Forbes, of 
Milton. Mr. Emerson was delightfully simple and un- 
assuming, prepared to be pleased with all he saw. He 
visited the Geysers and the Yosemite Valley, which he 
felt was one of the few things "that came up to the 
brag." One Sunday evening, to our great satisfaction, 
he read his essay on "Immortality." In the thought 
that a course of his lectures would be appreciated, Mr. 
Horace Davis, who had visited him at Concord, and I 
called on him at the Occidental Hotel to gain his con- 
sent. His daughter had put a few lectures in their 
trunk, thinking they might be called for, and he was 
glad to accommodate us. The lectures were given at 
his convenience, between trips. The first audiences 
were good, but curiosity seemed to be the leading 



66 HORATIO STEBBINS 



motive of attendance, for toward the end the audiences 
dropped off, whereat Dr. Stebbins remarked: "I 
thought the people would tire in the sockets of their 
wings, if they tried to follow him.' , Emerson was very 
friendly and approachable. He went over the church 
with interest, and was particularly pleased with an 
upper chamber over the Sunday-School room that Mr. 
King had provided as a refuge from the over-persist- 
ent. He remarked, with his gentle smile, "I think I 
should like a study beyond the orbit of the chamber- 
maid." We paid him for his lectures in twenty-dollar 
gold pieces, the first he had ever seen. 

Mozoomdar, the Hindoo reformer, was another 
lovable personality, who impressed us all very favor- 
ably. It was a memorable evening when, in Dr. 
Stebbins's parlor, he seated himself on the floor in 
his native fashion, and we, a stiff-kneed and perverse 
generation, attempted to unbend and follow him. 

Dr. Stebbins had unbounded admiration for Dr. 
Hedge, and expressed his esteem and regard on many 
occasions. In a letter to his brother Calvin, written 
early in his settlement in San Francisco, he says: "I 
have read Hedge's address in the Examiner. How 
mightily it sounds away here ! Well, he is the man of 
us all. I think he is so much ahead, as to have no 
second." Many years afterward Dr. Hedge came to 
the Pacific Coast, and it was a great satisfaction for 
the two to meet. 

On March 9, 1873, Dr. Stebbins, at the conclusion 



WIDER SERVICE 67 

of his sermon, spoke with great tenderness in memory 
of a fellow-minister, Dr. Joseph Henry Allen of North- 
borough, Massachusetts, who had died February 20, 
aged eighty-four years. Dr. Allen was the beloved 
minister of the family of Mr. Stebbins. His active 
ministry extended over a period of more than fifty 
years, and his life seemed to Dr. Stebbins like a con- 
necting link between the present and the former age, 
one of the class of men who kept alive the ideal of 
Goldsmith's Village Preacher. He spoke of him as an 
important part of the life of that lovely New England 
town, a man of great simplicity, whose desires, sub- 
dued to reason and conscience, gave him great re- 
sources of content and peace. 

"As a preacher he handled the Word of God with 
that reverent and devout good sense which makes it 
daily bread to men. As a counselor and friend, he was 
wise, tender, and true. As a guardian of public edu- 
cation, he placed the schools in the foremost rank of 
the time. In social intercourse he was the life of every 
circle, and gave to manners a tone of intelligence and 
refinement. His fine taste for gardening and the cul- 
ture of fruit and ornamental trees formed his appro- 
priate recreation and made the parsonage and the 
village church lovely. His household was ordered with 
that consummate discretion, independence of mind and 
feeling, genial, urbane, affectionate spirit, that make a 
house a home: and with that unprepared, yet ever- 
ready, open-door hospitality that causes its light to 



68 



HORATIO STEBBINS 



shine upon all. How many have been cheered by that 
light ! How many have been encouraged by its shin- 
ing and warmed by its glow !" 

As Dr. Allen illustrated for Dr. Stebbins the life of 
a New England parish minister, so, in an address given 
in the same month of March, 1873, in memory of 
Judge Oscar Lovell Shaf ter, of the California Supreme 
Court, he summed up the characteristics of a remark- 
able jurist ; and this address, like the other, indicates 
the trend of Dr. Stebbins's mind and his recognition 
of those qualities which make the highest types of 
human character. 

After noting Judge Shaf ter's practical ability — his 
energy, good sense, and integrity of nature — he 
analyzed his intellectual and spiritual perceptions. 
He said : 

"He had that appreciation of the law of laws, the 
unity and generalization of truth, that gives moral 
dignity to the intellect and the perspective of moral 
dignity to all principles. When theories of deep human 
interest were touched, his mind kindled along its sum- 
mits with fine enthusiasm of poetic feeling and insight. 
He did not belong to that class of minds always em- 
phatic never forcible; neither to that other class, 
" small pot soon hot," whose enthusiasm is in the 
blood and not in the idea. His mind sometimes lay 
calm, silent, sullen as the summer sea, and rolled with 
sleepy strength, and in all the manifestations of his 
intellectual activity there was something of that re- 



WIDER SERVICE 69 

pose which is the measure of reserved power and the 
background of all greatness. His religious faith was 
simple and human. He arrived at his conviction of the 
character of God from the nature of man and the 
experience of human life. He inferred that justice is 
God's justice, that mercy is God's mercy, that love is 
God's love ; and that the expression of these in human- 
ity is the expression of the divine. I think, in com- 
mending himself to the Almighty maker of men, he 
would, in the devout simplicity of his heart, have for- 
gotten all the honors and respect he enjoyed from his 
fellow-men, and thought only that he was a man." 

I hardly dare allude to the generosity of Dr. Steb- 
bins's judgment and the boundless kindness that year 
after year added to my debt of obligation and love. 
At a time of deep trial, his tenderness and sympathy 
were a great blessing. When he had done all, he begged 
me to promise to dine with the family at least once 
every week. For seven years it was my happy privi- 
lege to share Friday's dinner. When I married again, 
he said they must release me from the regular routine, 
but that I must come and bring my wife often, and 
that they should expect me once a week for luncheon. 
Then, for eight years, as long as he remained in Cali- 
fornia, I shared weekly a happy luncheon with his 
family. What honor ! What blessing ! Nor was I the 
only favored one. For years a widow and her two 
daughters shared another weekly dinner, and several 
bachelors were regularly expected at breakfast, lunch- 



70 HORATIO STEBBINS 

eon, or dinner. Dr. Stebbins's home and Iris heart 
were open to many, and he made them feel that they 
were giving as much as they were receiving. His 
abounding generosity was a great source of power and 
influence. 

It was not from lack of opportunity that Dr. Steb- 
bins did not leave his western parish after a brief 
term of service. He received many calls to return to 
the attractive East, all of which he respectfully de- 
clined. In 1873, a second attempt, in behalf of the 
church in Cambridge, gave the San Francisco parish 
occasion to express its sentiments. On January 28, 
at a meeting of the congregation an address, prepared 
by Horace Davis, moderator of the church, was 
unanimously adopted, signed by the trustees and 
three hundred and fifty-six members within easy 
reach, presented to Dr. Stebbins, and published in 
the Christian Register. From the first Mr. Davis 
was the steadfast friend and supporter of the suc- 
cessor of Starr King, whom he had dearly loved. 
With equal loyalty he became the unfailing right hand 
of Dr. Stebbins, who valued and appreciated him. In 
this earnest plea he set forth the urgent need of San 
Francisco, and declared that Cambridge ought to 
allow its minister to continue the vitally important 
work he had successfully begun. He referred to the 
deep sense of the value of his ministrations felt by his 
people, their personal affection, and the loss to the 
church and the liberal cause that would follow his 



WIDER SERVICE 71 

departure. Pledging cordial aid and support, the ad- 
dress concluded : " As you esteem our love and con- 
fidence, we pray that you will continue your ministra- 
tions among us." There was probably less danger than 
they apprehended. Dr. Stebbins once said to me: "I 
have had but three parishes, and if my life were again 
before me, I think I would choose to have but one." 

Dr. Stebbins early became interested in the College 
of California, which graduated its first class, three in 
number, in 1864, the year he came. It was located 
in Oakland, and represented large hopes. On June 7, 
1865, he addressed a meeting of the alumni, and the 
next year he delivered the Commencement oration. 
In the newspaper English of the period it was pro- 
nounced "brief, pertinent, philosophical, effectively 
delivered, and warmly applauded." 

He became a member of the board of trustees, and 
later was elected president of the board. He was influ- 
ential in transferring the organization and property to 
the State as the foundation for the University of Cali- 
fornia, subsequently located at Berkeley. He was ap- 
pointed a regent for the State, and was reappointed 
from time to time until he had served continuously 
for twenty-six years. He was not, himself, a minute 
scholar, but he knew the means of scholarship and 
was without doubt completely equipped for leadership 
in formulating and sustaining a really great university. 
The other members of the board deferred to him with 
advantage to the cause. 



j 2 HORATIO STEBBINS 

Professor William Carey Jones, the authority on 
this subject, in an address on "The Making of the 
University," says: "As I have studied the formative 
agencies of the University of California, I have come to 
believe that above all others the mind that gave large- 
ness and character to the university movement was 
that of Dr. Stebbins. The College of California, de- 
signed to be a religious but not sectarian institution, 
was popularly believed to be controlled in the interest 
of one or another of the evangelical churches, but its 
really non-sectarian character is shown by the fact 
that Starr King and later Horatio Stebbins were on its 
board of trustees. To Dr. Stebbins's broad vision and 
surpassing intellect is largely due the realization of a 
University of California out of three separately con- 
ceived ideas. In February, 1868, Dr. Stebbins wrote 
for the college paper an article of profound import, 
entitled 'Why do We Cherish the University?' He 
was cherishing the university before the university 
was born : just when perchance proper care was 
needed to give to the embryo the form and character 
and stamina that would enable it to achieve its highest 
purpose. The concluding sentences of this paper read : 
'This, then, is our vocation, to make men more manly 
and humanity more humane ; to augment the discourse 
of reason, intelligence, and faith, and to kindle the 
beacon fires of truth on all the summits of existence. 
To this end and for this cause may our University 
stand so long as the sun and moon shall endure.' " 



WIDER SERVICE 73 



Dr. Stebbins's fostering care did not cease with the 
birth of the institution; as regent he continued to 
cherish it and to rejoice in the marvelous growth. 
Two outstanding figures of the governing body were 
Dr. Stebbins and Mr. A. S. Hallidie : Dr. Stebbins 
in all that pertained to academic and cultural interests, 
and to their development on the grand scale; Mr. 
Hallidie in what pertained to the engineering depart- 
ment and, especially and above all, to the financial 
safeguarding of the University. Valuable cooperation 
by Durant, Ashburner, Tompkins, and others is to be 
freely acknowledged, but it is quite within bounds to 
say that Dr. Stebbins was the controlling influence on 
the board of regents from the beginning to the inau- 
guration of President Wheeler. 

Think for a moment what is involved in holding a 
position by the appointment of constantly changing 
governors for twenty-six years. What steadiness of 
purpose and degree of satisfaction are implied ! Posi- 
tive persons are sure to arouse opposition, and envy 
is a plant of vigorous growth. A Unitarian in an 
Evangelical community is at popular disadvantage, 
constantly distrusted by those who consider religious 
liberals dangerously unsound ; yet here an uncompro- 
mising, outspoken independent is retained for well-nigh 
a generation, and left to have his own way in a place 
of first importance. Such a public service is almost 
unprecedented, and the volume of benefit it conferred 
is hardly calculable. 



74 HORATIO STEBBINS 

Dr. Stebbins had a definite conception of the part 
that education should play in the formation of char- 
acter. The article to which Professor Jones referred 
sets forth the end of the University in such character- 
istic fashion that it is included in the extracts from 
his writings, collected at the end of this book. 

Perhaps no one in California appreciated Horatio 
Stebbins as fully as his friend Horace Davis, and 
association with him gave Davis a clear insight into 
his educational ideals and service. In an address at the 
University in 1909 he said : 

"Dr. Stebbins was a faithful servant of the Uni- 
versity of California for many years. Next to religion 
his dearest interest in life was education. Next to his 
God he thought most and deepest on the problem of 
human life : men and women in the concrete, not in 
the abstract, were his constant study. He was inter- 
ested in science ; but he felt a greater interest in the 
scientist. He loved art ; but the artist was dearer to 
him than art. Reserved and self-contained in his 
bearing, his heart overflowed with sympathy for his 
fellow-men. This was the root of his deep interest in 
education. It was not so much the love of literature 
or the love of science, as it was the love of men. 

"The early years in the life of the University were a 
critical period, calling for strong men and wise coun- 
sels. Forty years ago the people of the State had little 
sympathy with higher education. They were strong, 
vigorous men, who had crossed the continent for gain 



WIDER SERVICE 75 

or adventure ; they were absorbed in the problems of 
material life, in developing the resources of a new land. 
They had little leisure to ponder questions of intel- 
lectual life or the moral destiny of the community. 
The schools were inferior; what little university life 
existed was on a low plane, making it difficult to main- 
tain this institution on a basis at all commensurate 
with the standards of the older American colleges. It 
needed deep conviction and resolute courage to pro- 
claim the highest standard and hold to it in the face of 
opposition and outcry. Another danger that threat- 
ened the young University was jealousy and secession. 
The farmers wanted to secede and form a separate 
college of their own. To yield to this was to destroy 
the solidarity of the University, to open the way for 
ultimate dissolution into separate independent depart- 
ments — here a farmer's college, there a technological 
institute, somewhere else a school of arts and letters. 
It took a long and hard fight to head off these class 
prejudices and maintain the integrity of the Univer- 
sity as the single head of the educational system of the 
State. 

"Such were the trials and labors of those early 
regents. In response to their courage and faith a 
brighter day has dawned. The public schools have 
been lifted to higher standards, and the University 
has risen to an honorable place in the front rank of 
American universities. Dr. Stebbins was a leader 
among those men who guided its infant steps and set 



76 HORATIO STEBBINS 

the pace for future attainment; and his confident 
faith, his high ideals, his resolute courage, were strong 
factors in determining the future of the University. 

"When Mr. D. O. Mills was about to make his 
generous gift to the University, he asked his friend 
Dr. Stebbins in what form the benefaction would 
do the greatest good. The Doctor, true to his ideal 
conceptions, recommended the endowment of a Chair 
of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. At the time 
it was criticized as a barren, unpractical gift; but 
Mr. Mills's choice vindicated itself. No one influence 
inside the University has done so much to lift the 
standard of culture and to mellow the atmosphere, as 
this happy endowment of Mr. Mills, the Chair long 
filled by the revered Dr. Howison. 

"Dr. Stebbins has passed away ; but he lived to see 
the fruit of his labors. He saw the University grow 
in wealth, in power, in standing and influence, far 
beyond anything he could have conceived in those 
days of small things. All honor to those courageous 
men of the early days, whose faith never wavered, 
whose ideals were never dimmed ! They planted the 
seed ; we reap the fruit." 

In considering Dr. Stebbins's contribution to the 
cause of education in California, one may well speak 
here of his interest in Stanford University, founded 
some twelve years later than the period covered in this 
chapter, but carrying forward the same convictions 
of the worth of study and culture. He contributed 



WIDER SERVICE 77 

in many important ways to its formation and admin- 
istration. He was a trusted friend of both Senator and 
Mrs. Stanford, and they often consulted him. From 
the nature of things he could not take an active part 
in details, but he could and did give frequent counsel. 
He retained his position on the board of trustees until 
his removal to New England. He took part in many 
public occasions there, and the University and the 
splendid gift that made it possible were the subject of 
notable addresses. 

In 1885 he preached a sermon that reviewed the 
career of Senator Stanford and the founding of the 
University. He spoke of it as "a great benefaction, 
unequaled in our country, or in Christendom, it may 
be, in substantial grandeur or in its prophetic idea." 
He spoke freely of Senator Stanford, as the product 
of a new epoch of human affairs and modern thought, 
a man of good sense by nature, fitted to grow wiser, 
on whom dawned the railroad age, bringing with 
it a success into which entered many causes beyond 
human control. The possession of vast wealth brought 
him the idea of responsibility and duty. "Grief and 
money," said Dr. Stebbins, "are alike naturally selfish : 
one thinks of its possessions, the other thinks of its 
own sufferings. Happy are those whose possessions 
are transfigured by a glory from above and whose 
sufferings are transformed to sympathies." 

It is interesting to know that Dr. Stebbins's influence 
in these great universities did not cease with his death. 



78 HORATIO STEBBINS 

His daughter Lucy is the honored Dean of Women and 
professor in the University of California at Berkeley, 
and his son Horatio holds an assistant professorship 
in the engineering department of Stanford University 
at Palo Alto. 

Dr. Stebbins's service to education was not confined 
to the two great universities. He was always ready to 
give his best thought and his long experience to aid 
the public schools generally. He was frequently called 
to address school institutes and gatherings of teachers, 
or to advise with principals or teachers. He was pro- 
foundly interested in education as an influence, and 
was consulted by many who had plans for advancing 
it. He was named by the will of James Lick as trustee 
of the California School for Mechanical Arts and he 
served for many years on its controlling board, with 
large influence in establishing its excellent foundation 
and its wise control. On its board were many of his 
nearest friends, and under their judicious management 
it became a most successful school, second perhaps to 
none of its character in the country. It has now drawn 
two other large endowments into working cooperation, 
and promises to become an important educational 
power. 



CHAPTER V 



RIPENED YEARS 

On July 4, 1876, San Francisco was called to do her 
utmost to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary 
of the signing of the Declaration of Independence at 
Philadelphia. It happened that, while the signers were 
deliberating on their act, Lieutenant Moraga, of 
Anza's command, was getting out the timber to build 
the Mission Dolores; and San Francisco was then 
virtually born, as a Spanish city. Thus it was a double 
celebration and an important event. In the twelve 
years of Dr. Stebbins's residence his reputation for 
ability and eloquence had been firmly established and 
to him was entrusted the oration on this day, great 
for the Nation and the city. His address was a lofty 
reiteration of the spirit of the Declaration which 
meant an extension of freedom and equality of oppor- 
tunity to share the moral and spiritual rights of man. 
A sentence or two gives its keynote: 

"We affirm and declare to-day, as the fathers in 
1776, that all men are free; and we mean by it that 
fundamental fact of human nature by which man is 
man, endowed by Heaven with the power to choose 
between good and evil, and to direct his course toward 
those ends that seem to him best ! We mean that the 
office of Government is to protect that freedom, and 



8o HORATIO STEBBINS 



not to encroach upon it ; to throw around it the envi- 
ronments of law, that under law it may be liberty 
indeed ! We affirm and declare to-day, as the fathers 
in 1776, that all men are equal ! Hear it, O Heaven ! 
and give ear unto it, O Earth! We mean by this 
that that human nature, whose inspiration is reason 
and conscience, is divine, and we avow that progress 
of mankind is grounded in this common nature of man. 
On this we base our hope of human progress, and our 
faith in human destiny." 

In August, 1876, Dr. Stebbins stopped at Chicago 
on his way eastward, and from there he sent me a note 
with news that concerned his future happiness, that 
I was delighted to receive : 

My dear Charles and Alice : 

Your goodness to me, always manifest, will readily 
appreciate my temper toward you when I tell you that 
I am engaged to be married, at some future day, to 
Miss Lucy E. Ward, of Chicago. 

Horatio Stebbins 

Miss Ward's father, Doliver Ward, went to Cali- 
fornia in 1850 and died there the following year. Her 
maternal grandfather, James Wibray, was an English- 
man who, like other young men in those days, "ran 
away before the mast." He became a much-beloved 
and honored sea-captain, who commanded packet- 
ships sailing between Liverpool and New York, and 



RIPENED YEARS 81 



later between New York and New Orleans. He 
brought his family to Illinois in 1835 by way of the 
Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. His wife, the "little 
grandmother/ ' and daughter played an heroic part in 
early pioneer days on the prairies ; and the daughter 
married Doliver Ward at the age of eighteen. 

In due time the marriage took place and a blessed 
Providence gave Dr. Stebbins twenty-six years of 
exceptionally happy life. He had perfect sympathy, 
devoted love, and solicitous care. A son, Horatio 
Ward, and a daughter, Lucy Ward, completed the 
family. He was a most affectionate and wisely indul- 
gent father, with complete confidence in his children. 
It was a happy home in every respect, and his fond 
hopes found abundant fulfillment. His daughter was 
a precious "Jewel" and "the boy" was as companion- 
able as he himself had been to his own father. He 
liked to repeat a remark that "the little fellow" made 
one day as they came, hand-in-hand, home from 
church: "Papa, I don't think I understood much of 
the sermon, but it made a good impression." He 
watched with intense interest the development of the 
children, and to see them take their place in life added 
greatly to his peace and joy. 

In 1864 the church at San Francisco stood alone 
on the Pacific Coast and there was no opportunity for 
exchange of pulpits. The church at Portland was 
established in 1866, as has been said. The dedication 
of the present church building in June, 1879, was tne 



82 HORATIO STEBBINS 



occasion of the first gathering of Pacific Coast Uni- 
tarians. It was my privilege to accompany Dr. Steb- 
bins on this delightful trip. We went by steamer, 
though if there was anything in the world that Dr. 
Stebbins did not love, it was ocean travel. I have a 
card of that date : 

My dear Charles : 

The California, the finest ship in the known world, 
will leave this part of said world on Tuesday the 27th. 
I feel about it as the woman in Connecticut did about 
the revival: "I dread her, but let her cornel" 
Yours really 

H. Stebbins 

He was miserably seasick on the way up, but stood 
the hard test and kept good-naturedly humorous, as 
he lay helpless in his berth. He enjoyed it when I read 
aloud and he was benefited by the complete escape 
from care and responsibility. When we passed up the 
beautiful Columbia River, he was very happy, like a 
large boy on a vacation, the life of every gathering we 
had. On Sunday he preached the dedication sermon, 
and on the two following days we organized the first 
Pacific Coast Conference. Ministers were somewhat 
scarce, but they were of good quality and we made the 
most of them. We spoke of Mr. Stebbins and Mr. 
Eliot in those far-away days, but they were the same 
men who later honored their degrees. The Reverend 



- RIPENED YEARS 83 

David Utter came down from Olympia on Puget 
Sound, and the Reverend Edward Galvin from Walla 
Walla. The Reverend W. W. McKaig, an emerging 
Presbyterian minister from Marysville, was a decided 
addition. 

When off duty Dr. Stebbins was more hilarious 
than I had ever known him to be, or ever afterward 
saw him. One day as we strolled along the street he 
was walking with Mr. McKaig, a man almost his size. 
Suddenly he stopped and faced his companion, say- 
ing: "McKaig, I believe I'm a better man than you 
are. Come on, take off your coat and let's settle it." 
It was the height of the incongruous and convulsed 
the ministerial crowd. At the dedication and the 
Conference, Dr. Stebbins was at his best. He was 
particularly fond of Eliot and pleased to see the hold 
he had gained on the Portland community. It was as 
happy a convocation of good men as I ever knew, and 
Dr. Stebbins returned to his arduous duties greatly 
refreshed. 

The Sunday School, organized in 1853, had grown 
steadily but slowly, until it shared in the rapid expan- 
sion of Starr King's time. When I joined it in 1864, 
the average attendance was about four hundred, and 
it was vigorous and efficient. When Dr. Stebbins 
succeeded Starr King, I was a teacher in the Sunday 
School, and when in 1869 Mr. J. C. A. Hill became 
superintendent, I was his assistant for four years, and 
upon his return to New England in 1873 I became 



84 HORATIO STEBBINS 

superintendent, serving most of the time during the 
long ministry of Dr. Stebbins. The entertainments 
of the Sunday School were popular, and the public 
enjoyed them in a unique degree. Our Christmas 
festivals were a feature of the city life. Piatt's Hall 
would be well filled, with an admission fee of a large 
silver dollar, and after the dinner for pupils, service 
for the school, Christmas tree and entertainment, an 
enjoyable dance followed. Something attractively 
fresh was always expected and generally realized. A 
surprise snowstorm is a memory of many early mem- 
bers. Equally popular were the picnics, which usu- 
ally alternated between Belmont and Fairfax. The 
attendance often numbered a thousand and the whole 
community looked forward to them. Perhaps, how- 
ever, our anniversaries were the most distinctive and 
memorable events of Sunday-School life. On the 
Sunday nearest to the 7 th of August the Sunday 
School usually marched behind its banner to the center 
and front of the church and conducted the morning 
services, which included the year's report, an address 
by Dr. Stebbins, and, best remembered of all, the 
presentation of a souvenir bouquet from an immense 
floral pyramid as each scholar passed before Dr. 
Stebbins after the benediction. Year after year this 
happy custom was followed, and his gracious pres- 
ence as he bestowed the simple tokens of his affection 
was impressed on thousands of little ones, who still 
reverence him. 



RIPENED YEARS 85 

When Dr. Stebbins came to us, the era of organiza- 
tions inside the church had not arrived. In 1871 the 
Unitarian Socials were organized, with officers and 
committees charged with promoting the social inter- 
ests of the church. Musical and literary entertain- 
ments were given in the church parlors, but they were 
too formal to provoke real sociability. In 1873 we 
turned to a rather elaborate organization for general 
usefulness, the Society for Christian Work, to which 
both men and women belonged. One section carried 
on the benevolent activities that had never been 
neglected; the second established and maintained a 
successful sewing school for which as many as four 
hundred pupils met weekly ; the third section distrib- 
uted reading matter to hospitals and jails; and the 
fourth kept up social gatherings and tried to promote 
better acquaintance among church attendants. It 
did good work for several years. Section One had use 
for more money than it could easily secure, and some- 
times extraordinary efforts were necessary. In 1877, 
when the Kellogg Opera Company was having a good 
season, the contralto singer, Annie Louise Cary, who 
had known and loved Dr. Stebbins in Portland and 
wished to help, gave a really sacred concert in the 
church on a Sunday evening. She had a capacity 
house, and, supported by the Loring Club and others, 
presented a fine programme, the best number of which 
was her solo "O, Rest in the Lord." Standing in the 
pulpit, with reverent manner, she seemed a dovelike 



86 HORATIO STEBBINS 



embodiment of purity and love. The benefit added 
over a thousand dollars to the treasury. By 1880 a few 
determined women reorganized the society, keeping 
the same name, but confining it to the duties of Sec- 
tion One. In 1887 a second Woman's Society was 
organized under the name of the Channing Auxiliary. 
Its interest is educational and denominational; it 
conducts a Post Office Mission and occasionally 
indulges in publication. This society became affiliated 
later with the Alliance of Unitarian Women, a Na- 
tional Society, of which for years it was the largest 
branch, as, indeed, it still may be. 

Dr. Stebbins was sparing in the matter of vacations. 
He never closed the church for more than a month 
in the summer, and for most of the time he conducted 
a morning and an evening service. He did not always 
leave the city for his brief annual rest. He liked hi« 
own home too well to risk discomforts. He generally 
enjoyed good health, but in 1882 he had an attack of 
pneumonia, which left him reduced in vitality, and he 
was advised to spend a time at Sisson's meadows, near 
Shasta. In September he writes : 

"My coming here has been a great benefit, and I am 
feeling the returning tides of health and strength. I 
want to stay only long enough to 'catch the slack' 
and thus make fast what I have gained. I rode in 
the saddle on a mountain trail over twenty miles on 
Saturday. The days are singularly fine, and there is 
a peculiar luxury in the air. I am making the most 



RIPENED YEARS 87 

of it, as I breathe it, flavored with the love of my 
friends." 

He was most generous in expressions of affection. 
In September, 1884, on a journey to the East, he wrote 
from Portland, Maine : 

"My dear Charles : I want only to speak to you ; 
it matters not much what I say. My journey at all its 
stages has been pleasant, and the days have gone 
gently on into a deeper splendor, typical of my own 
feelings whenever I come into these fields of former 
memories. The occasion at Saratoga was very inter- 
esting, and my part in it was all that your love could 
wish ; which surely seems egotism in me to say, did I 
not say it from your heart more than from my own. 
Dear Charles, my affection for you is very great, and 
I am instructed by you in my spirit. I shall see you 
again soon." 

In 1888 he again returned from the East by way of 
Portland, Oregon, whence he writes : 

"My dear Friend: I have about completed the 
circle of my travels, and am satisfied with the purpose 
and end of my journey. I have been met everywhere 
with cordiality, and, strange to me, with an acknowl- 
edgment of reputation of which I did not dream. I 
hope I shall be saved from any vanity. I have nothing 
to write, unless it is to tell you of my admiring regard 
and manly love. Is that nothing? It is a good deal 
to me!" 

He had the habit of dropping in frequently at my 



88 



HORATIO STEBBINS 



place of business just to say a friendly word. One day 
I returned from a brief absence and found on a scrap 
of paper his familiar bold signature, followed by one 
word and three exclamation points: "Nothing !! !" 

Dr. Stebbins enjoyed his trips to the East whenever 
opportunity offered. It was a pleasure to meet old 
friends and renew early associations. In 1883 he wrote 
me from Matunuck Beach, Rhode Island: 

My dear Charles : 

I am truly refreshed by your cordial remembrance 
and your kind words. The fact is, I am one of the most 
susceptible creatures in the world: fond even to de- 
pendence, on the regards of others, yet with resource 
and self-reliance that seem to contradict it. I came 
down here on Tuesday to meet Hale and have a little 
quiet seclusion with him. I have enjoyed a great deal. 
I leave this afternoon to go to Springfield, where I 
shall meet a few friends of early days, and feel the 
absence of those who are gone. I am much refreshed 
by my journey. The soft green landscape, the run- 
ning waters, the cool shade, all sink into my very 
spirit. The memories of former times and persons are 
keen and vivid, but I would not avoid the pain they 
bring. How happily shall I return to my work! I 
hope I shall be able to do more and better than ever 
before. I am much interested in all you are doing for 
the Boys and Girls Society. You are surely a most 
happy man in such ability for works of goodness and 



RIPENED YEARS 89 

love. I have often thought of you with gratitude and 
joy. Give my love to your wife. I cherish her regard for 
me as one of the precious things of life. With love to 
you both, H. Stebbins 

On the twentieth anniversary of Dr. Stebbins's 
settlement the congregation testified to their affection 
by presenting to him, on the Sunday evening nearest 
the actual date, an address on parchment, signed by all 
the people within reach. It read : 

Dear Dr. Stebbins : It is fitting upon this anniver- 
sary, marking an important era in our history and in 
yours, that we express our gratitude for these years of 
happy association, and our sincere affection and re- 
spectful regard for you. The text from which you first 
preached to us, twenty years ago to-day, 4 'Whosoever 
will be great among you, let him be your minister," 
was prophetic. You have indeed been our minister; 
sustaining us in trouble, comforting us in sickness, 
teaching us by word and example, and holding ever 
before us the highest ideals of moral and spiritual life. 
You have been patient with us in our indifference, and 
devoted to us far beyond our deserving. Nor has your 
service been confined to us. You have ministered with 
tender sympathy to the poor and the pastorless, and 
helped to better living and nobler aspirations many 
not of your household of faith. You have been able to 
do much for the cause of good learning in the commu- 



9 o HORATIO STEBBINS 

nity, and holding alone this western outpost of Unitari- 
anism, you have added to the respect in which our 
liberal faith is held, and augmented its influence and 
power. We know that you are not dependent upon our 
appreciation, but we trust it will gratify you to feel 
that we are not unmindful of the service which, during 
these twenty years of unremitting labor, you have 
rendered us and the community of which we are a part. 
May the kind Providence that has so favored us con- 
tinue to bless us in your presence and ministrations, 
and may we be enabled to express to you by willing 
service our sense of personal obligation, and to show in 
our lives the fruits of your teaching. May you be ever 
sustained by the deep and lofty faith which you have 
revealed to us, and may the peace that follows all true 
service and the love that passeth all understanding 
rest upon and enfold you always. 

Dr. Stebbins always enjoyed the social side of a 
conference. He liked his associates, and gave them all 
a chance to do their best. It was a real opportunity to 
compare experiences and convictions, and advance 
interest in things of the spirit. He was always ready 
to do his full part, but never monopolized a session, 
or left as soon as he had finished, as if indifferent to 
what others might say. He had a pithy way of sum- 
ming up discussion and flashing light on dark places, 
and he never spoke without saying something. He was 
more than able; he was wise, patient, and good- 




RIPENED YEARS 91 

natured. He was a large part of the first Conference at 
Portland, and he planned the second several years 
later, held at the Geary and Stockton Church, where 
Bartlett, Howison, Rabbi Cohn, and others supple- 
mented the Unitarian clergy and made a really great 
meeting. He attended every session thereafter. I 
recall one at Oakland when participants were few, 
which did not, however, suffer in interest. The meet- 
ings were particularly brilliant, and at the closing ses- 
sion Dr. Stebbins said it reminded him of an experience 
early in life, when, standing on the shores of a lake, 
he saw the boat of a fisherman friend coming in. In 
answer to a query as to the catch, the friend stood in 
the boat and held up a large fish — which he dropped 
into the boat. Then he held up and dropped another, 
and another, and so on, until his catch was the envy 
of all. The truth was that he had simply manipulated 
one fish. The few at the Conference had been so busy 
that they had given the impression of large numbers. 

Dr. Stebbins was never disposed to unsettle those 
whose religious convictions or theological opinions 
differed from his own. He encouraged no one to come 
to us with large expectations, or to hasten out of 
orthodoxy until he felt that he must. He deplored the 
loss that often resulted when the old faith was given 
up before the new was firmly established, and the mis- 
conception on the part of the unripe as to what it 
means to be a liberal. On his return from a trip to 
Oregon, he remarked that he found men whose only 



92 HORATIO STEBBINS 

idea of liberalism was that it allowed a man to shoot 
ducks on Sunday. 

Some of the ministers who turned from the old 
churches and essayed to preach in ours shocked him 
with their lack of reverence and their revulsion from all 
that was spiritual. He said of one who seemed to glory 
in his escape from orthodoxy and spoke with contempt 
of his old faith : "He seems to have come out from his 
old church, naked, leaving all his clothes behind him. ,, 

For many years the sessions of the National Con- 
ference, now the General Conference, were held at 
Saratoga. At the eleventh meeting, held in 1884, Dr. 
Stebbins preached the biennial sermon — an impor- 
tant assignment. It was later published in pamphlet 
form. 

The published sermons of Horatio Stebbins are few 
in number. He was always disinclined to print. In 
reply to a request for permission to publish a sermon, 
he once wrote me : "About this printing ! I am wrong, 
perhaps, but experience has confirmed my feeling and 
I find that first-rate men in the profession agree with 
me. I will, however, sometime give you something to 
print. The secretary of the American Unitarian As- 
sociation wanted material for a volume of sermons, 
but I have not agreed at present." While he shrank 
from printing sermons, he was always cordially anx- 
ious to contribute in any way possible to the value of 
the Pacific Unitarian, and often gave me short extracts. 

In 1885 Dr. Stebbins was touched by the receipt of 



RIPENED YEARS 93 

resolutions and photographs from the Brotherhood of 
Locomotive Engineers. In the previous year, during 
a strike, one of their number, Engineer Clarke, had 
gone to his death in the pursuit of duty. Dr. Stebbins, 
in a sermon on "The Industrial Troubles of the 
Times,' ' alluded with grateful appreciation to this 
notable act of heroism. A fund had been raised for a 
memorial, and a fitting monument erected to Clarke 
at the spot where he died in honor. During the unveil- 
ing the thoughts of the committee reverted to the 
admiring allusion of Dr. Stebbins, and they passed 
resolutions of gratitude for his words, "words that 
sustained many a brave heart in the discharge of his 
duty," and sent with them photographs of the monu- 
ment and its unveiling. 

In 1886, largely through Dr. Stebbins's interest and 
effort, the Unitarian Club of California was organized. 
For thirty years it was a strong, helpful agency, large 
and generous in membership, which held a place in the 
community all its own. It was acknowledged to offer 
the best of audiences, and when distinguished visitors 
came to the Coast its hospitality was gladly accepted. 
When Lyman Abbott visited San Francisco, Dr. 
McLean, the head of the Congregationalists, asked the 
privilege of introducing the club to him. Many Uni- 
tarian leaders have been entertained at its hospitable 
board. Dr. Stebbins was held in great veneration, and 
was usually urged to conclude the programme, who- 
ever had spoken. One of the most notable dinners was 



94 HORATIO STEBBINS 

a reception to Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard 
Shaw, at which Dr. Stebbins spoke to the toast: 
" Womanly Women. " The largest and most impres- 
sive reception was given to Booker T. Washington. 

In 1887 Dr. Stebbins was one of the guests of the 
Chit-Chat Club at its thirteenth annual meeting, as 
was General O. O. Howard, to whom was assigned the 
toast: "The Prospect of Universal Peace." He spoke 
hopefully, quoting General Sheridan to the effect 
that by extraordinary improvements in breech-loading 
ordnance war would soon become too costly in life 
and money to admit it as a solution of national 
troubles. He also referred to the love of peace exhib- 
ited by Grant and other soldiers, and to the effort of 
English and American statesmen to secure an Inter- 
national Congress. He felt sure there was an increasing 
majority of peace-loving men, and further that mis- 
sionary enterprise was convincing the semi-civilized 
and uncivilized that their best interests were found in 
the divine teachings of him who came to proclaim 
peace on earth. 

The second regular toast was "War," assigned to 
Dr. Stebbins. After a cordial introduction he said : "I 
know not by what design I have been set over against 
the distinguished captain. Let it not be supposed that 
I have any contention with him in the hopeful senti- 
ments which he has expressed. I share those senti- 
ments with him in company with the illustrious 
prophets and teachers of mankind, who, in inspired 



RIPENED YEARS 95 

vision of the advancing God, have seen the time when 
war shall be no more. We shall not live to see that 
time, though there be those here who shall not see 
death till they see the dawn of that day. Not to hope 
it, and trustingly believe it, is to belie those aspira- 
tions of the heart of man which the Maker has kindled, 
not to tantalize the world, but to lead mankind on to 
the realization of the poet's insight, more profound 
than politico-economics, or any doctrine of the balance 
of power, when 

'all men to be 
Will make one people ere man's race be run.'" 

He continued, however, with reflections on the ground 
and standing of war in the providence of the world, 
and concluded with the assurance that there is some- 
thing worse than war, namely, the misery of having 
nothing worth righting for. 

Horatio Stebbins used his mind fearlessly and 
calmly, with no prejudices to be overcome. His 
thought was analytic and penetrating, and he followed 
it to ultimate conclusions. He remarked once that 
intellectual honesty was far more rare than moral 
honesty. His massive integrity had great distrust for 
half-truths, and the faculty of grasping essentials at 
once. He had great facility for generalization, and 
never mistook the corollary for the proposition. 

Often during the discussion of a subject, before a 
club meeting, for instance, he would sit apparently 
unimpressed, absorbed in thought, and if called on at 



96 HORATIO STEBBINS 

the close, as he often was, he would, in a few brief 
words, state the question clearly, and dispose of it to 
the satisfaction of the company, perhaps bringing up 
some decisive factor not before considered. His dis- 
crimination and sense of perspective were remarkable, 
as also the beauty and finish of form with which he 
clothed extemporaneous remarks. His speech was al- 
ways deliberate and rhythmical, often poetic. When 
unexpectedly called to say a few words in the way 
of benediction, he expressed his thoughts in beauty 
that was seldom less than majestic. 

Dr. Stebbins was never more impressive than at the 
communion service, which he wholly divested of the 
quality of formal observance. It was real and tender, 
a communion of the inmost spirit, in which there was 
a sense of vital union and joyful solemnity. He fre- 
quently carried forward the theme of the sermon in 
the preceding church service, applying its central 
thought to life and connecting it with the unity of 
sympathy which a communion service typifies. He 
rarely followed any prescribed form of responses or 
prayer, but spoke from the depths of his own feeling, 
and led his flock in reverent supplication. At such 
times he was transfigured before us, lifted up into 
the heights of being. His countenance glowed with 
supernal beauty, and those to whom he ministered 
felt with him the divine presence, and were strength- 
ened in their purpose to be led by the spirit. The serv- 
ice, to him, filled a real want, and was not a tradi- 



RIPENED YEARS 97 

tional observance of doctrinal implication, but a nat- 
ural and blessed opportunity to draw near to one 
another and to God, in spirit and in truth, that love 
might find increase and strength be gained for loftier 
life. 

Of all the many trips I enjoyed with Dr. Stebbins, 
attendance at the Boston May Meetings of 1886 holds 
first place. From first to last it was a delightful ex- 
perience. He was in good spirits on the train and 
enjoyed meeting all sorts of men. I would find him 
animatedly discussing cattle with a man from Mon- 
tana, or lumber with an Oregonian. He was thoroughly 
democratic and sympathetic, friends with all, even 
with the jocose Pullman porter, whose final injunction 
was: " Be good." He was easily amused. During a 
brief stop at a station called Green River — a desolate 
place, where there was nothing green in sight except- 
ing the word on the station sign — he engaged in con- 
versation a native on the platform and casually asked 
him if it were not rather lonely in the winter. "Well," 
replied the man, "in the winter we play cards a good 
deal, to mitigate the gloom." "Mitigate the gloom" 
appealed to Dr. Stebbins as an expressive phrase, and 
he never forgot it. It is still a family expression. He 
was unwearied by the long journey and reached Boston 
with keen anticipation of the companionship he missed 
in his distant field of labor. He was heartily welcomed 
and enjoyed much in the remarkable meetings of the 
week. He spoke at the large evening meeting, where 



98 HORATIO STEBBINS 

he met Dr. Hedge and Dr. Peabody, whom he greatly 
esteemed. 

At the laymen's festival he replied for the ministry, 
and was very happy. He told an incident of his early 
experience in San Francisco that convulsed the com- 
pany. He had entered one of the street-cars of the 
period, with plush-covered seats, and straw on the 
floor. It was well rilled, but he finally found an unoccu- 
pied space by the side of a good-natured man who 
made room. He noticed that the accommodating 
stranger had obviously been imbibing rather freely, 
also that he, himself, was recognized. The man turned 
toward him and familiarly patting the doctor's knee 
said: "I know who you are. You're Dr. Stebbins, 
and you're a good man, but I don't go a cent on your 
religion. I'm a Baptist myself." "The laugh was on 
me," Dr. Stebbins continued, "but by a happy chance 
I turned it off with the reply: 'I am glad to know you 
are a Baptist ; cold water is just what you need. ' " 

The ordination of his son Roderick at Milton 
occurred during our stay. He gave the charge to the 
minister, and it was one of the best addresses I ever 
heard, full of wisdom, tenderness, and feeling, sea- 
soned by a touch of homely humor. A sentence or two 
may find place here : 

"My notion is that the prime credential for the 
vocation of a minister is a generous love of human 
nature — a conviction, glowing with enthusiasm, that 
human nature is the best thing God has ever made, as 



RIPENED YEARS 99 

far as we know. The strong citadel of a minister's 
mind, amid indifference around him and the con- 
sciousness of the inadequacy of his own work, is that 
in every man's inmost soul he has an advocate with 
the Father, that says amen to all eternal truth ; and 
that, while his own imperfect work partakes of the 
imperfection of all human things, yet the work of God 
shall prosper." 

It was a beautiful sight to view the silver-headed 
saints, lifelong friends of the returned exile, as he 
stood in grateful pride by the side of the son who had 
chosen the profession he honored and loved. 

On June 19, 1887, we worshiped for the last time in 
the Starr King Church, which was to be torn down to 
make way for a business block. The churches in Oak- 
land and Sacramento united with us in the farewell 
service. In his announcement the previous Sunday, 
Dr. Stebbins had said: "Let us all, young and old, 
gather here once more, and offer gratitude and praise 
to the Giver of all good, and the Guide of man. Then 
let us go out with reverent and strong adieux where the 
Eternal Providence shall lead." To this announcement 
he added the following suggestion: "Let each one of 
us as we come in lay a green leaf, a flower, a spire of 
grass on the burial stone that lies yonder. Let there 
be no wreaths or artificial labors, but a sprig of the 
beauty of the world, such as a child can pluck with 
his hand, or that a dove let loose from heaven might 
bring to adorn the brow of a Son of Man." 



ioo HORATIO STEBBINS 



The service was carried out in the spirit of his words. 

We had worshiped in this church for over twenty- 
three years, but it was time to leave the business dis- 
trict. We sold for one hundred and twenty thousand 
dollars the lot that had cost sixteen thousand dollars, 
and built, at the corner of Franklin Street, a fine build- 
ing that cost, lot and all, ninety-one thousand dollars. 
Dr. Stebbins took great interest in this new church, 
and on February 19, 1889, it was dedicated. Dr. 
Hedge wrote a hymn for the occasion. During its 
construction we worshiped in the Synagogue Emanuel, 
and the Sunday School was hospitably entertained at 
the First Congregational Church, which indicates the 
friendly relations maintained by Dr. Stebbins, who 
never engaged in controversy with any other house- 
hold of faith. 

When Dr. Stebbins came to the church he found 
as its treasurer, and a trustee, Captain William C. 
Hinckley who had been its devoted friend for many 
years. He lived on Bush Street, and was thus a near 
neighbor as well as a constant attendant at church. 
As he drew near his end, he was pathetically depend- 
ent on his dearly loved minister. His wife had gone 
before; he was childless and lonely. Dr. Stebbins 
was tenderly devoted, cheering and sustaining him to 
the last. Captain Hinckley wanted to dispose of his 
property so that it would do the greatest possible 
good after he was gone. He asked Dr. Stebbins to draw 
up his will, who complied after much thought and con- 



RIPENED YEARS 101 

sultation. On December 29, 1875, the will establish- 
ing "The William and Alice Hinckley Trust" was 
signed. Captain Hinckley died April 11, 1876. Let 
Dr. Stebbins tell his story. On the Sunday following 
he said, in part: 

"Captain William Crawford Hinckley and his wife, 
Alice Campbell Hinckley, were members of our parish 
and cheerful helpers of our cause from the early days. 
They were the cordial friends of my predecessor, Mr. 
King, and he enjoyed, as only such as he can enjoy, 
the simplicity of their manners and their true kindness. 
They could not love me as they loved him, but they 
loved me after a true fashion, which gave them much 
delight and me much cause of gratitude." After telling 
of Captain Hinckley's birth in Boston in 1809, of his 
boyhood in Milton, of his apprenticeship to the dry- 
goods trade at thirteen, of his finding that there was 
"no trade in him," and of his shipping on a whaler at 
the age of sixteen, returning three years later with 
ninety dollars and experience, of several years in the 
merchant service, of his determination, at twenty-one, 
to get more schooling, of his return to Milton and 
study at the academy for three months, Dr. Stebbins 
proceeds : 

"There the sailor-boy, returning from throwing the 
harpoon along the Pacific longitude, encountered the 
javelin that pierced his heart from Alice Hinckley's 
eyes. Then a new inspiration took him. He must do 
something — and what could he do ? He was ' good for 



io2 HORATIO STEBBINS 



nothing else' — the sea was his field. He went, rose 
quickly to be master, — and he was a good one, — 
roved from sea to sea and from shore to shore with 
varying fortunes, sometimes up and sometimes down, 
but generally down. He was accustomed to say, with 
honorable simplicity: 'The truth is, I never was a 
business man.' He was off the coast of South America 
when he heard of the gold discoveries in California. 
He took his ship up the river among the first, and her 
bones He there now. He went to the mines. As he 
said, he 'got the hang of mining/ and in a few months 
took out nearly six thousand dollars, and came back 
to the Bay ; and in those shifting times and events he 
bought at auction for sixty dollars the land on which 
the California Theater long stood. Nobody outbid 
him, and some thought he was a fool for buying it. 
He never displayed any conceit about it after it turned 
out to be successful far beyond his foresight. He 
always said it was a good Providence that gave him a 
competence in his increasing years. He was so im- 
pressed with the idea that his later prosperity was 
owing to no special wit or talent of his own, that he 
i wanted to set apart a portion of his property as a 
memorial of the good Providence that had befriended 
him. I have never seen a man who understood more 
clearly or confessed more humbly that causes entirely 
beyond his control and greater than his wisdom had 
given him success. He knew that he came in on the 
tide and never claimed that he rowed in or steamed in. 



RIPENED YEARS 103 

After the death of Mrs. Hinckley, his frame gave 
way, though he lived in much enjoyment, occupied 
chiefly in making all things ready for his departure. 
Ten days before his death it was manifest that he was 
sinking rapidly. At evening, holding my hand in his, 
he said, 'I am glad to see you ; it does me good !' In 
the morning, before day, when the tide served, he 
lifted his anchors and put out upon the boundless 
blue." 

j The lot on Bush Street, near Kearney, bought for 
sixty dollars, had been leased to the California Theater 
Company for one thousand dollars a month, ground 
rental, and he had some other property. Under the 
will the then trustees of the church were made exec- 
utors, and also trustees of the trust fund. From the 
income of the lease a number of legacies and a mort- 
gage were slowly met. The will was contested as con- 
stituting a perpetuity. Litigation postponed settle- 
ment, but finally the will was sustained and the trust 
fund, to the extent of one third of the estate, set aside. 
It was March, 1890, when disbursements of the inter- 
est of the fund of fifty-two thousand dollars began. 
The will gave great discretion to the trustees under the 
general provision, "for Human Beneficence," particu- 
larly commending religion, learning, and charity. It 
called attention to the trials and afflictions of the in- 
dustrious, striving, unfortunate poor and especially to 
the aged, the infirm, and the lonely. It also provided 
a Hinckley Scholarship of three hundred dollars a 



io4 HORATIO STEBBINS 



year. Dr. Stebbins was elected president of the board, 
and held the position till his removal to New England 
in 1900. 

This fund has been of incalculable benefit and is a 
source of great strength to the church. Its income 
provides an appropriation of one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars a month to the Society for Christian Work 
for the charities of the church, and as much more 
for other expenditures. Up to this time we have dis- 
bursed more than seventy-two thousand dollars and 
the fund has increased to sixty-two thousand dollars. 
Dr. Stebbins was strong in his belief that individuals 
should be endowed rather than institutions, and this 
Will, in providing that vacancies be filled by joint 
ballot of the trustees and the board of church trustees, 
insures perpetual beneficence administered by a group 
of interested individuals. Only one of the original 
trustees survives, but the spirit of the trust is un- 
quenched and seemingly immortal. 

Incidentally the case has significant importance, as 
it established the American law on perpetuities, find- 
ing that such a perpetuity for human good is not to be 
interdicted (as by the English law), as against public 
interest. 

Dr. Stebbins inspired the utmost respect among the 
men of the parish, and they responded to his spirit and 
were anxious to serve others. Among those who felt 
this fine friendliness was Mr. Henry Pierce, a man 
of apparently little sentiment. He was frequently a 



RIPENED YEARS 105 

dinner guest, and delighted to take with him any of 
the family when he exercised his line team of horses. 
When he died, his will contained an unexpected clause : 
"I give and bequeath to my three friends, Horatio 
Stebbins, Horace Davis, and Charles A. Murdock, 
and to their successors, the sum of ten thousand dol- 
lars in trust for the library of the First Unitarian 
Church. ,, There was no existing library, save that of 
the Sunday School, and the surviving trustees decided 
that the income of the fund should be spent, after pro- 
viding for the wants of the Church School, in establish- 
ing a library, to be called "The Henry Pierce Library," 
which should provide, for the parish and for ministers, 
students, and others, of all denominations, the best 
publications on religion and kindred topics. It is lo- 
cated at the church, and provides even to ministers at 
a distance books they would find it difficult, if not 
impossible, otherwise to obtain. It has increasing ap- 
preciation from the parish. At the death of the sur- 
viving trustee, it will be controlled by the church 
trustees, one more monument to the memory and in- 
fluence of Horatio Stebbins. 

Another parishioner, Mrs. Anna M. Hathaway, 
established at her death a trust fund of five thousand 
dollars for the poor of the church. Dr. Stebbins served 
as a trustee during his lifetime. These two funds 
augment the beneficence that promises to testify for 
all time to the helpful influence of his ministry. 

Two parishioners who loved him much, William and 



io6 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Caroline Hardy, provided by will for some memorial 
of him to be placed in the walls of the church, and in 
191 7 a simple tablet of bronze was dedicated. A sim- 
ilar tablet is placed near it in memory of Starr King. 

A touching tribute of grateful affection in the form 
of a mural painting adorns the Gothic panel back of 
the pulpit. It is the work and gift of Mr. Bruce Porter, 
who grew to manhood under Dr. Stebbins's preaching, 
and greatly revered him. It represents the religious 
development of mankind, particularly the significance 
of a favorite phrase of Dr. Stebbins, "Lo, at length, 
the True Light." Mr. Porter was variously gifted, and 
a beautiful poem written by him in 1898 may well 
appear here : 

HORATIO STEBBINS 

Honored by humble men, he walks these streets, 
Priest of the wider parish of the heart ; 
A tower of strength to the impetuous State, 
Where steadfast and serene he fills his part ; 
Still offering wisdom — though the hour grows late; 
Still lending courage — in the face of Fate. 
Unterrified and kind, large as the light of day, 
He passes on — 

We lift our eyes, sodden with petty ills, 

And lo ! — visions of forests, of the silent hills, 

And the deep tides of the obedient sea ! 

Without doubt the friend upon whom Dr. Stebbins 
most relied for sympathy and support was Horace 
Davis, who for nearly forty years conducted the Bible- 
Class in the Sunday School. He was thoroughly con- 



RIPENED YEARS 107 

genial and by character and attainment more nearly 
an equal than any other parishioner. He delighted in 
Dr. Stebbins, and their intimacy was a great resource 
to both. He was an appreciative friend. In an histor- 
ical sketch of the church, after referring to Dr. Steb- 
bins's valued public services, he said : "Dr. Stebbins's 
greatest power was in the pulpit ; and his preaching was 
always to the individual, to you and me. Each of us re- 
members some peculiar phase of his preaching, but he 
impressed me most when he spoke of the eternal verities 
of the spirit. God and the human soul were realities 
to him, more real than the rocks and hills around us. 
I gratefully acknowledge my debt to him — a debt 
greater than I owe to any other man, greater than 
any service of mine can pay." 



CHAPTER VI 

CLOSE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MINISTRY 

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the coming of Dr. 
Stebbins, his congregation turned out in full numbers 
to mark the event. The parlors had been tastefully 
decorated with flowers and ferns by the loving hands 
of the ladies of the church societies. Delightful music 
formed a background for congratulations and brisk 
conversation during a happy evening. Then the mod- 
erator, Mr. Charles M. Gorham, signaled silence and 
addressed Dr. Stebbins : 

"Years ago you came to the pastorate of this church. 
During all these years you have given us the best that 
God has given you, and, while you have faithfully 
ministered to this congregation, you have also taken 
the whole city for your field of duty — going about 
doing good, helping the needy, encouraging the weak, 
comforting the distressed ; and so, moved by feelings 
of grateful appreciation and affectionate regard, we 
herewith present you something material by way of 
remembrance, with the hope that you may be long 
spared to your family, to us, your people, and to the 
church of God." 

The " herewith" was a purse containing S1864, and 
accompanied the latest edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica. Dr. Stebbins replied with tender emotion. 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 109 

He was "surprised, delighted, and happy." It was he 
who was under debt to his people, and, "if my teach- 
ings have cast warmth upon your hearts," he said, 
"it is from inspiration I have gained through the grace 
of God. If I have entered into service with the love of 
human nature, it is from the womanly influence which 
is ever near me. I owe this to the woman who is my 
wife and whom I have the honor to love." He closed 
by bestowing his blessing on the gathering 

Dr. Stebbins was well sustained by his people, but 
he stood practically alone on the Pacific Coast; for 
even when he could rejoice in Eliot in Portland or Fay 
in Los Angeles, distances were so great that he had 
little companionship. So we were always glad when he 
was able to go to conferences in the East and meet his 
brother ministers. It had value for them as well. It 
stimulated the young to see and hear him. The Rev- 
erend Richard W. Boynton wrote in 1909 to the 
Christian Register: 

"I well recall, at my first National Conference at 
Saratoga in 1891, when on my twenty-first birthday 
I consecrated myself to this ministry, the magnificent 
presence of Dr. Stebbins of San Francisco, and the 
spirit of what he said. He closed in this way, ' 1 have 
always spoken and preached from the level of my 
mind ; and, by the grace of God, I am able to say, with 
all humility and yet with pride, that those who have 
gone from the First Church of San Francisco have 
gone inoculated at least with truth that preserves 



no HORATIO STEBBINS 



them from the miserable religious diseases of Christen- 
dom.'" 

Again Mr. Boynton wrote : 

"Study the preaching of the great preachers, of 
George Putnam, of Phillips Brooks, of Horatio Steb- 
bins, of Brooke Herford, of James Martineau, and you 
will find that it did not concern itself with the uproot- 
ing of particular wrong so much as with the affirming 
and establishing of universal truth and right. It went 
out of doors, it glorified in the broad sweep of truth, it 
spoke with the voices of authority, it made men whole, 
and then trusted those whole men to make a whole- 
some world." 

The thirtieth anniversary was marked by the instal- 
lation of the Reverend William G. Eliot, Jr., as assist- 
ant minister of the church. To join in the auspicious 
event Dr. Thomas L. Eliot, father of the new minister, 
had come from Portland, Oregon, and the Reverend 
Roderick Stebbins, his close friend, had come from 
Milton, Massachusetts. The Reverend Charles W. 
Wendte preached the sermon, Dr. Eliot gave the 
charge, the Reverend Roderick Stebbins the right 
hand of fellowship. Dr. Stebbins gave a noble ad- 
dress in the course of which he said : 

"Dear Friends : The purpose that gives importance 
and emphasis to this occasion is concluded. The day 
has indeed a double import to our memory and our 
hope. We may reverently recognize the providence of 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS in 



God in history, when we call to mind that this is 
the anniversary of the admission of California to the 
Union — one of the most striking events, considering 
all its attendant circumstances, of the last half-cen- 
tury. We may reverently confess that Providence in 
human affairs, under whose guidance men are some- 
times wiser than they know, and which brought this 
western shore under the protecting aegis of the Consti- 
tution, within whose folds there lie those latent prin- 
ciples of justice and truth that are yet to be revealed 
for the guidance and welfare of mankind ; else, we had 
been a feeble republic, looking with vacant gaze upon 
a lazy, idle sea, facing Oriental monotony, the sullen 
pyramids, and the drowsy Sphinx. 

"We may call to mind with a reverent gratitude 
that this historic event in the life of our country was 
contemporaneous with the founding of our church, 
and that here political liberty and rational religion, the 
eternal signals of human progress, were established to- 
gether by men who brought with them something of 
the continuity of history, and the traditions of an 
advancing race. We may cherish with cheerful humil- 
ity and honorable self-respect, under God, the feeling 
that our church has been the source of much good, and 
has done something, not only for the spiritual life and 
growth of those who have sustained its cause and 
shared its ministrations, but also for that general 
progress of religious thought from dogmatic assertion 
to reasonable conviction, which characterizes the 



ii2 HORATIO STEBBINS 



better mind of our day. We have had an honorable 
share in the interpretation of human life in the light 
of religion. For this, we reverently thank God, whose 
inspiration giveth us understanding. 

"This date is the thirtieth anniversary of my com- 
ing as your minister. That period of thirty years in- 
cludes more than half the period of the American occu- 
pation of the country, and of the life of our church. I 
would give it no personal accent or importance. When 
I came, Bellows was here ; a distinguished figure and 
remarkable man of his time, who, most susceptible to 
impression, was more eloquent than Kossuth, more 
witty than Sydney Smith, and devout as Augustine. 
The beloved King had died six months before ; the air 
was fragrant with his name, and the vanishing echoes 
of his voice for God and Country were still heard. The 
fires of war cast their lurid glare from shore to shore, 
and grief and victory wept for the sorrows of the land. 

"But let me not dwell upon the past, much less 
speak of myself. There is no necessity that a man 
should speak of himself among those who know him 
better than he knows himself, only bear with me a 
little if I boast of your friendship, and am proud of 
your fidelity. I can ask nothing better for this young 
man than that you receive him, as you have me, with 
magnanimous moral and spiritual hospitality. Respect 
will grow to admiration and love, and he will be to 
you what he is already to his friends — strength, con- 
fidence, and satisfaction. 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 113 

4 'Young man, I bid you hail ! As you stand upon the 
threshold of the future, and go forward to the work 
that Heaven ordains, we who are passing salute you, 
and the coming race takes up the theme I" 

For the thirty-first anniversary the ladies of the 
congregation had planned a pleasant acknowledg- 
ment in the form of a portrait in oil to be presented to 
the church. Although Dr. Stebbins usually enjoyed 
good health, he had then an attack of weakness that 
prevented him from preaching the sermon he had pre- 
pared, but he was able to respond to the words of the 
moderator and clerk. A large number were present, 
and at the close of the services pressed around Dr. 
Stebbins to express their regard. He was much 
touched by their sympathy and loyalty. Subsequently 
he preached what he called a secular discourse, and it 
was published by the Channing Auxiliary. It gives 
an estimate of the results of the past thirty-one 
years. 

He spoke first of the material progress of the State 
and the fact that, in spite of the spirit naturally 
engendered by the gold discoveries, there had been 
established a commonwealth that promised to rank 
high in world states by its institutions of law, learn- 
ing, and religion. He noted signs of increasing in- 
dustry and economy, alluded prophetically to the 
dangers involved in wine and liquor production, 



ii4 HORATIO STEBBINS 

declared that the theory of the minimum of business 
at the maximum of profit must give way to the theory 
of the maximum of business at the minimum of profit, 
and showed that the tide of population would come 
when people knew that the land would yield compe- 
tence and comfort to small owners of good habits and 
little money. He spoke of California's inevitable rela- 
tion to the Asiatic races in the opening of the Orient 
and her responsibility therein. He analyzed tendencies 
of society and of the public press and found the remedy 
for ills and wrong in the education that in the large 
sense includes development of the intellectual and 
moral nature of man, and relies on the evolution of the 
individual for the renovation of society. He con- 
cluded with a statement that embodied his mature 
conceptions of religion ; and closed with the thought 
that a teacher of religion is the interpreter of human 
life in its true relations. He closed with the words: 
"How feebly I have filled this ideal in these years of 
the lifetime of a generation, I know and God knows ; 
but in no folly of self-adulation, in deep and tender 
humility, this has been my aim ; and my honor and 
respect for you are that you have sustained me in it, 
by your steadfast hearts and by your vision on the 
mount. I am and have been among you a much em- 
ployed man. I have not withheld my hand or my 
heart as a minister, a man, or a citizen from any human 
interest, within the reach of limited capacity and 
prescribed duty ; and my proud humility and gratitude 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 115 

are, under God, that men and women from every con- 
dition and circumstance of life have come to me sim- 
ply because they thought I was human. If life and 
strength are given, I may render you better service 
yet, the riper fruits of experience, some clearer vision 
of God." 



In April, 1895, occurred the ninetieth birthday of 
Martineau, and among the words of greeting to him 
Dr. Stebbins wrote : 

"Reverend and dear Dr. Martineau: Indulge 
me, I pray you, for the sake of the satisfaction it gives 
my own heart, to convey to you my revering, grateful, 
and affectionate regards. If to be honored and beloved 
is the full cup of earthly joy, your joy is full. If to 
awaken the mind and heart of man to the deepest 
truth of his being is the purest and noblest service, 
you are among the great teachers of mankind. Among 
those who, in different lands, rejoice to see your day, 
I offer thanks to God that through you he has been 
revealed to many souls, and that in loving you they 
have loved him." 

On August 23, 1896, Dr. Stebbins preached a noble 
sermon on " Manliness." It was in the nature of a 
farewell to his assistant, the Reverend William G. 
Eliot, Jr., who after two years of service went to Mil- 
waukee to take charge of its pulpit. He said he would 
make no elaborate adieux to one "who goes out in 



n6 HORATIO STEBBINS 



obedience to inward promptings to the open field of 
the world to cast the seed of truth on fresh furrows.' ' 
He assured him of ardent wishes, and reminded him, 
and himself, of the office and duty of a minister, "to 
unfold the principles of moral and spiritual truth, to 
awaken the sentiments and affections of the heart, and 
lift up those ideals that ever draw the wondering eyes 
to the mountain-tops that lie between this and a 
hidden world." 

In December, 1897, Dr. Stebbins wrote to Mr. Eli 
T. Sheppard, the essayist, who had read a paper at the 
Chit-Chat Club on "The Future of the Pacific" 

"My dear Mr. Sheppard : I was sorry not to be 
present to hear you. All expected much, and I am 
assured that they were not disappointed. I do not 
know the precise view you took of the final part that 
shall be acted in the scene of History, on this now 
vacant sea. I am an Asiatic, and have always held 
the opinion that this western shore of the continent 
would wait the slow process of Oriental life, and 
depend for its full development on our relations with 
the Asiatic races. As our religion began in Asia, and 
took its westward way, so it will complete its circuit 
and finally touch the spot whence it arose. Great 
changes are going on, and a hundred years may wit- 
ness China divided among the nations, or raised to 
equal rights among the 'most favored.' But let me 
not prophesy 1 1 am content in the Faith that there is a 
providence in History." 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 117 

Dr. Stebbins's attitude to Christian Science is set 
forth in a letter to Mr. Carol Norton, dated in 1898. 
He writes : 

"My interest in Christian Science is drawn from 
observation and converse with devotees, rather than 
from careful studies. In conversation with intelligent 
disciples of this school, I have been led to the con- 
clusion that the center of gravity of the theme is in the 
influence of mind over matter ; or, put more humanely, 
self-control under the laws of moral rectitude and 
purity. Of course, the very gravamen of our religion, 
as expressed in thought or action, is just this, but I fail 
to discover anything new in it, either to saints or 
sinners, or to find in it a ground for that ' exact science ' 
of which you speak. I cannot understand how a moral 
and spiritual world can be reduced to what is called 
demonstration. The glory of moral being is that what 
is apprehended is greater than the comprehended, and 
the demonstrable is the narrow border-land of the 
infinite. The guides of life, thought, and action, are 
judgments, probabilities, faith, and hopes. Abolish 
these by demonstration, and reduce the world to 
mathematics, the sun, moon, and stars would fall, 
and the bleak heavens would mark the hopeless world. 
There is in Christian Science an element of miraculism 
which contradicts our most elementary and funda- 
mental idea of science as right knowledge: but the 
theme is too large for discussion here. I thank you 
sincerely for your cordiality, and assure you of my 
great respect." 



n8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



In July, 1898, the Class of '48 of Harvard Univer- 
sity, of which Dr. Stebbins was a member, celebrated 
its fiftieth anniversary. He was unable to attend, but 
sent a letter, which has especial interest as expressing 
some general conclusions reached at the eminence of 
seventy-seven. He said : 

"Of myself I will not speak, more than to say that I 
have been as happy as is common to human lot under 
a Divine Providence, and had as good success as a 
man like me can reasonably expect. I also confess 
with grateful humility that I have taken great satis- 
faction in my vocation, and, it may be, have rendered 
some service to my time and the welfare of my fellow- 
men. I am especially glad, too, that years find me 
good-natured, and that, amid all human vicissitude of 
ignorance, weakness, or wrong, I have a cheerful heart 
toward humankind, am a believer in the world, and 
an ardent lover of human nature as the best thing 
God has ever made. I am no sentimentalist, but a 
severe moralist, tempered by the genial charities of 
religion and cheered by a great hope." 

On August 21, 1898, Dr. Stebbins felt moved to 
express his satisfaction at the public act of a foreign 
ambassador, then at Berlin. He sent this letter : 

"Hon. Andrew D. White: I thank you heart- 
ily for your speech at Leipzig on the Fourth of July. 
It is distinguished for wisdom, discretion, and inde- 
pendence, united with that felicity of expression which 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 119 

becomes the courtesy of nations. Your position has 
been of such delicacy that we, here at home, have felt 
a lively interest in your conduct, and it is a source of 
great and proud satisfaction, that our confidence has 
been abundantly justified. Your speech displays the 
qualities of a discreet politician, a wise statesman, and 
an independent champion of freedom. The touchy 
spirit of the German Emperor has, in some minds, 
excited evil forebodings ; in others, derision. You have 
ignored these extremes, by the path of right reason, 
and the manners of a prince of liberty. That is a 
singular felicity of speech where you give our cause 
such historic setting: 1 The struggle of a new era of 
right against an old era of wrong.' The war was inevit- 
able ; it is over : my only desire now is that diplomacy 
may be so wise and so honorable that statesmen may 
believe in one another in all national efforts to pro- 
mote the welfare of humankind. Bismarck is dead! 
The heavens do not weep ; nor is there a ripple of grief 
in the heart of man. A statesman so bereft of great 
human nature as to think of founding a modern state 
without principles of individual liberty does not 
attract the applause nor the gratitude of the world. 
I hope you are well and enjoying the well-earned 
reputation which your varied public service justifies." 

Dr. Stebbins endeared himself to many in the com- 
munity who were not identified with his church. His 
friendliness and his services were not confined within 



iao HORATIO STEBBINS 



any ecclesiastical or theological banks, and he was 
always ready to respond to any call or need. An ex- 
sea-captain of Episcopalian affiliations fell ill, and 
relapsed into invalidism. He was fond of Dr. Stebbins, 
and nothing seemed to brighten him like a call from 
the much-occupied preacher, who regularly and fre- 
quently dropped in to see him; and this habit con- 
tinued as long as the Captain lived. 

Added to Dr. Stebbins's generosity was entire 
independence and disinterestedness. He was faithful 
to his church, but he commanded community respect 
and confidence, and the strong men of business and 
leaders in public affairs believed in him and trusted 
him fully. They were ready to help him, and so he 
became practically influential, and able to help those 
who were out of employment. His opinion carried 
weight, and on any public matter his attitude had 
value. 

It was a fortunate circumstance that the Unitarian 
Church in the controlling community of the State of 
California was represented continuously, by two men 
of the strength and character of Starr King and 
Horatio Stebbins. It gave it a standing and a respect 
not always accorded. No California Unitarian ever 
thinks of being apologetic for his faith. Neither has 
he any excuse for being a narrow and illiberal liberal. 
His traditions ought to be generous, without com- 
placency or contempt. Dr. Stebbins never sought to 
build up his church by destroying any other. Neither 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 121 



did he indulge in attacks or disparagement. At differ- 
ent times, as opportunity offered, he expressed sym- 
pathy and appreciation with many other forms of 
faith. 

In 1900, Mr. Rolla V. Watt, a prominent and loyal 
Methodist, had publicly expressed his disappointment 
at the apathy and weakness of his church. Dr. Steb- 
bins wrote him a considerate letter, recalling his early 
observations and his present regard for Methodism, 
and besought his friend to be patient, and not to forget 
the honorable record and continued excellence of a 
great church. He often showed his friendliness with 
the Roman Catholic Church, and had no sympathy 
with those who distrusted and feared it. He was 
generally on good terms with those from whom he 
widely differed. Generous and magnanimous by na- 
ture, he preserved a sense of perspective that did 
not distort the truth. 

The discourses of Dr. Stebbins were thoroughly pre- 
pared. They were never long and rarely exceeded 
twenty minutes, but were often so packed with 
thought that they seemed to embrace enough material 
for at least two sermons. He was distrustful of the 
diffusiveness of extemporaneous speaking, though he 
was known on occasion to develop an introductory 
allusion to rome current occurrence into a complete 
address, allowing his manuscript to remain unopened. 
His sermons were always constructive and affirmative, 



122 HORATIO STEBBINS 



never controversial. He was earnest, but never pas- 
sionate. He was calm with the dignity of a strong man 
uttering deep convictions. His use of language was 
apt, and his illustrations were original and effective. 
He was an attractive speaker, but he demanded 
thoughtful hearing and to follow him was no easy 
task. He enjoyed his congregation, and it gained the 
credit of showing unusually quiet and absorbed at- 
tention. He wrote deliberately, taking all the time 
required to express himself clearly, often delaying a 
sentence to find the exact word to express his meaning. 
When the sermon was complete, it was beautiful in 
appearance, written in bold and striking characters, 
without interlineation or correction. In the Pacific 
School for the Ministry there have been deposited 
some eight hundred manuscripts of sermons, and 
hardly an amended sentence is to be found. 

Dr. Stebbins usually enjoyed robust health, but 
along in 1897 and 1898 he had several serious warn- 
ings. On December 16, 1899, he felt oppressed, and 
unable to fill his pulpit. The next day he had a severe 
attack of apparent heart failure, and the end seemed 
near. Tuesday morning he was better, and full of 
courage but weak. He said to me : " Early this morn- 
ing we had a storm center and I thought the end had 
come. My son held me up with strength like an 
angel's and here I am, at peace with the world and all 
mankind." 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 123 

For ten days his life trembled in the balance, and 
then he steadily improved. The trustees felt that 
every possible relief must be given him, and, after 
supplies had filled the pulpit for January, they engaged 
the Reverend Stopford W. Brooke, of Boston, to sup- 
ply for several months, until Dr. Stebbins was able to 
resume his ministry. On January 22 he felt constrained 
to resign — "that you may be free," he wrote, "to 
act according to the dictates of your discretion, and 
as the welfare of the church demands." 

The resignation was read to the congregation and 
the trustees reported that there was no other thought 
than retaining the existing relation as long as he lived, 
and that it was fondly hoped he might soon be in his 
pulpit. The resignation was formally declined and 
the moderator was instructed to confer from time to 
time as to further action. His health steadily im- 
proved during the succeeding months. He saw his 
friends, walked about, and was full of courage and 
faith. Mr. Brooke served very acceptably for five 
months. Dr. Stebbins preached on June n and was 
able happily to round out thirty-five years of service 
with his anniversary service of September 11. 

On that occasion the congregations of his church and 
of the Second Unitarian Church joined in commemo- 
rating the event. The services were held in the First 
Church, the Reverend Andrew J. Wells offering the 
prayer and reading the scriptures. Dr. Stebbins took 



124 HORATIO STEBBINS 

for his text the passage from Deuteronomy where 
Moses was commanded : " Get thee up into the top of 
the hill, and lift up thine eyes westward and northward 
and southward and eastward, and behold with thine 
eyes." He made rapid survey of the half-century 
drawing to a close, and added : 

"This church has stood for those great principles of 
freedom and independence in religious thought that 
must ever be the ally of reason and of faith. It 
churches or unchurches no man. It inquires not for 
the particular items of his belief, nor puts him on trial 
for his opinions, but simply organizes religion for the 
purpose of teaching, worship, and prayer, and the 
good works of honor, truth, and love. 

"A minister should know the world without being 
worldly, understand the wickedness of the world 
without partaking its wickedness, though he himself 
is weak ; sympathizing with men of all ranks and con- 
ditions, severely upright, yet tender-hearted. Beyond 
that there is not much that I believe I would tell any- 
body. I would talk with anybody, and supplement 
my own experience by his, and increase the breadth 
of my knowledge, and learn to know how little I know, 
yet standing firm as a rock in the eternal verities of 
moral and spiritual being. 

"The prosperity of this church has been a kind of 
steady-going strength without proselytism or compe- 
tition, relying simply on the moral and spiritual attrac- 
tions of religious truth, interpreted by reverent faith, 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 125 

imagination, reason, and common sense. The preacher 
has spoken from the level of his mind, and the people 
have heard with tolerant mind and receptive heart. 
There has been no trial for heresy and no meddling 
with private opinions, and the human sentiments of 
mutual sympathy and honor have been our bond of 
thought, feeling, and action. Religion is not a pro- 
fession ; it is human nature and life, the law and love 
of our being, as gravitation is in earth and star, and 
as light goes forth upon land and sea. We have only 
to lay hold upon that law and love within, and our 
being becomes real to us. We are satisfied that though 
life has many illusions life itself is no deception ; that 
we ourselves are spiritual beings of kindred nature with 
God ; and if these great sentiments sway our hearts, 
illume our reason, and inspire our action, we have, by 
the grace of God, vested rights and blessings in 
immortality." 

The moderator of the church then stepped forward 
and asked him to accept a simple memorial of the 
regard of his parishioners, in the form of an engrossed 
address, bound in a convenient volume and signed by 
many friends. Slipped in was an envelope containing 
over four thousand dollars. 

On September 26, Dr. Stebbins, feeling that his 
health was too precarious to justify him in longer 
continuance of service, asked to be definitely relieved. 
With reluctance the trustees granted his request and 



126 HORATIO STEBBINS 



elected him Pastor Emeritus ; and the Reverend Brad- 
ford Leavitt, of Washington, D.C., was called as min- 
ister. Dr. Stebbins's health greatly improved and he 
was able to fill the pulpit frequently. In November 
he preached three times to the great satisfaction of all. 

A letter to Mr. Eli Sheppard, written early in 1900, 
indicates his mental and physical condition : 

"I am having a low- toned kind of health that admits 
some comfort, yet exacts some carefulness. Your 
speaking of me so kindly, and finding here and there 
a man who speaks so, impresses me much with senti- 
ments of gratitude toward all. I feel that I have acted 
a very feeble part, yet I am not altogether without 
self-respect. As years increase, and the profounder 
experience of thought and life is awakened, I am 
impressed with how much there may be in every man 
that has not been called out or used. Abilities lie 
scattered all around 'loose that life has not fully 
appropriated. Your own health and your courage have 
always challenged my admiring sympathy, and I have 
held the hope that you might yet be delivered of all 
shipwreck and disaster, and have a free course of 
health and strength worthy your gifts. Whenever I 
have met you, I have felt toward you the happy obli- 
gations of an indebted mind. My work is done, though 
I will not lie down in the furrow, but will plod on with 
a slow but cheerful gait till the sun has set. My suc- 
cessor will be installed next Sunday morning. I trust 
that his cheerful confidence will be justified. I am 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 127 



indeed glad that you have such a fine impression of the 
country as you have gone through different sections, 
here and there. I felt all your intelligent enthusiasm 
in regard to our wonderful land. I believe in it, mind, 
heart, and soul ; and I believe there is to be a display 
of human power and greatness never surpassed on the 
earth. There is great noise among the nations, and 
we are living in a most eventful period. The world is 
growing smaller every year through the influence of 
swift communication, and nations are becoming 
neighborhoods, and the unity of mankind is dawning 
upon the world. While the life of a generation is short 
and sees little change, the eternal years move on under 
the guidance of Him with whom a thousand years is as 
one day, and one day is a thousand years. I thank you, 
indeed, for your great kindness. Believe me that it is 
heartily and sincerely reciprocated, and whether I see 
you again or not I bear upon my mind and heart the 
cheerful impression of your image." 

On January 14, 1900, the Reverend Bradford 
Leavitt was installed. Dr. Stebbins was in fine spirits 
and made an excellent address. Then, turning to the 
people he besought them to receive his successor with 
the cordial hospitality of heart and mind, which they 
had ever shown toward him. "There has been in you," 
he said, "a cordial, sincere, and strong respect toward 
me which has given me the greatest personal satisfac- 
tion, and you have been very patient of my errors and 



ia8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



my blunders, with that good sense and upright judg- 
ment with which we all learn at length to take a man as 
he is, and not as he ought to be. This young man comes 
approved by all who know him. Treat him manfully, 
with confidence and trust, and thus challenge him to the 
noblest things there are in him, or that God can give." 

A session of the Pacific Coast Conference was held 
at Berkeley on May 2 and 3, 1900. The general topic 
was "A Century of the Unitarian Movement in 
America." On the afternoon of the 2d, there were five 
five-minute papers or addresses on related topics. Dr. 
Stebbins was asked to speak on "The Contribution of 
the Unitarian Movement to Religious Thoughts and 
Ideas." When he was announced and stood up to 
speak, the entire body instinctively arose, to pay their 
respect to their devoted leader, whose early departure 
made it probable that he never would be with them 
again. He spoke briefly, but effectively, and was heard 
with the close attention he always received. Without 
a particle of boasting, he set forth with firm respect 
the influence of liberal teaching, and took occasion to 
deny the charge that our position was one of negation: 

"There never was anything more false. It is an 
affirmation of the true nature of human nature and of 
retribution. It was a denial of Calvinism, that terrible 
system which controlled men through fear, and which 
could only be outgrown by the common sense of man- 
kind. It is passing away ; it is now substantially gone. 



CALIFORNIA MINISTRY ENDS 129 

This having fallen to the ground, Unitarianism comes 
in as the common-sense view of religion. It is not a 
dogmatic creed, but a way of thinking, a habit of mind. 
God is not manifested merely in three persons, but in 
humanity." He alluded to the great contribution of 
the Reverend George R. Noyes. "He was a great lover 
of truth, and his studies are the track of light that has 
swept through our heavens for a hundred years. The 
destiny of our way of thinking is safe. A man who 
has character and moral courage follows his thought. 
We know the truth just in proportion in which we our- 
selves become the truth." 

Dr. Stebbins stood in his San Francisco pulpit for 
the last time on May 27, 1900, four days before he 
was to leave for Milton, Massachusetts. Mr. Leavitt 
preached a brief sermon, Dr. Stebbins offering the 
prayer, and speaking impressive words of farewell. 
He said he had come to the church on this last Sunday 
because he wanted to join in the service of praise and 
prayer. As he had stood upon the corner and looked at 
the building, its stony face softened by the vines that 
caught the morning sun, it had seemed to typify the 
religion to whose service it was dedicated. It was 
strong and conscious of power; it spoke of rest and 
peace. Of his ministry he would not speak. If it had 
been helpful, if it had been able to do any good, it was 
because of the inspiring God, and it would be immortal. 
He had always entertained a respect for his people, 



130 HORATIO STEBBINS 

for their intelligence and faithfulness. He recognized 
Humanity as the greatest of churches, a communion 
that transcends all others. First of all, God had made 
him a man ; and the inspiration to become a minis- 
ter had come to him when, beneath the trees of his 
father's farm, he read the words of the greatest spirit 
of mankind. His ministry to this church had covered 
more than thirty-five years — a long period in the 
activity of a human life. If he had ever said anything 
to offend, he asked forgiveness ; if he had been guilty 
of neglect, it had been without intent ; if he had ever 
seemed to fail of sympathy in times of sorrow, he 
adjured them to believe it not. If he had a wish to 
express for the future of the church and its people, it 
was that they might continue to bear the name Uni- 
tarian. The best thought of all lands tends to converge 
in the acceptance of unity of natural law, unity of 
humanity, unity of God. In conclusion, he spoke of his 
gratitude for all he had enjoyed. He had always endeav- 
ored to speak to the reason, the faith, and the love of 
his hearers. Now he followed where the hand of Provi- 
dence seemed to lead, and with gratitude, confidence, 
and trust he wished his congregation a cheerful, a grate- 
ful, and a happy good-morning. After the singing of a 
hymn he pronounced a tender benediction with a voice 
as strong and unfaltering as the noble heart it echoed. 

The long, blessed ministry was at an end. Worn in 
body, but with mind unimpaired and spirit undaunted, 
he joined his children, calmly to await his earthly end. 



CHAPTER VII 

QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 

Dr. Stebbins continued in fair health, occasionally 
preaching and not unfrequently officiating at the 
funeral of some friend. In early May, 1900, he decided 
to return to New England, largely to be near his three 
children. He gave up his home on Larkin Street, 
associated with sacred memories, and on May 31 pro- 
ceeded to Milton, Massachusetts. He sent to the July 
Pacific Unitarian a pleasant account of crossing the 
continent. 

"Travel across the continent is now so frequent that 
nothing new can be said about it, and the scene awak- 
ens no surprise in the traveler himself. We took our 
places on the train at evening, gave pleasant adieu to 
friends, and were greeted on board by the faithful 
porter, who accosted me, calling me by name as if he 
knew me well, saying, ' Dr. Stebbins, if I can do any- 
thing for you, let me know. I'll be glad to do anything 
I can to elevate your comfort !' 

"It is said that when men become travelers they 
grow selfish, and that it is a kind of every-one-for- 
himself, and the Devil take the hindmost. I think, 
however, that that saying is modified by the spirit 
and manners of those who travel. People whom you 
meet crossing the country from west to east are, on 



i 3 2 HORATIO STEBBINS 

the whole, polite, accommodating, and good-natured. 
Politeness to women is certainly characteristic of the 
spirit of the people, and makes travel for ladies alone 
entirely becoming and independent. 

"During the night of Thursday the double engines 
tugged and puffed up the mountains, and at early 
morning we could discern that we were running down- 
hill on the eastern side, where the waters flow in 
another direction. The second day is the time to get 
down to business and get adapted. The way is rather 
dry and tedious, and yet there is no hardship unless 
you are inclined to complain — and who is not? The 
country, dry, barren, and lonely as it seems, yet bears 
some marks of civilization and culture, here and there, 
and it is noticeable that fewer Indians cling to the 
train or linger about the stations than thirty years ago. 
Where the Indians are I do not know. Some say they 
have gone farther south. 

"Ogden looks large and bustling, the focus of in- 
dustry and railways, a point from which you can go 
anywhere, if you take the right train ; and if you take 
the wrong train, you are sure to be landed somewhere. 
Onward through to Omaha the country shows increas- 
ing cultivation ; stations are more frequent. Pleasant 
farms and industrious populations tell of the increas- 
ing life and power of the State. Omaha is a beautiful 
town with a public school situated on a noble eminence 
that overlooks a boundless country of land and river. 

" When one comes near the city of Chicago, he feels 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 133 

a little throb of wonder, mystery, and fear. Chicago 
is a terrible town, not pleasant, but awful, industrially, 
commercially, socially, or morally. All the world is 
there, of every tribe and race and nation on the earth. 
It seems now to have an overflow of population, more 
than can be employed or fed, and thousands of 
industrious men have left to find in other fields or 
cities an outlet for their pent-up, smothered life. 
Externally Chicago is indeed a terrible city, full of all 
human powers, destined to a greater greatness among 
the cities of the world ; not a pleasant city to live in, 
it may be, but how little that has to do with the 
founding of the cities of the world ; the natural centers 
of activity settle that ! 

"One day more, through a thickly peopled country, 
where towns, villages, and cities are seen as flashlights 
in the darkness of night or flecking the brilliant land- 
scape by day ; and we arrive at Boston, on time to a 
minute (three o'clock), and from the train in half an 
hour step into a pleasant little cottage house, with 
table spread and adorned with flowers." 

A few days after his arrival he wrote : "We are com- 
fortably settled in the midst of beauty above and 
around, and our hearts are blooming with memories 
and gratitude fairer than earth or sky." 

Soon afterwards he wrote : "I have kept quite still 
and am rather enjoying it. I am about, so, and do not 
expect anything else. I went to Commencement, and 



134 HORATIO STEBBINS 

returned as soon as I could get out. I have been out on 
the trolley cars, twenty miles. They run everywhere 
and afford the easiest outing. I went to church on 
Sunday morning and heard Roderick. I have rarely 
enjoyed a service of greater refinement, dignity, and 
reverence.' , 

By husbanding his strength he was able to enjoy 
much. In another note he says: "If I am able, I am 
going to Cambridge this afternoon, not to do any- 
thing, but to meet the ministers, who have an address 
and an hour together. I shall not be able to hear the 
address by Fenn, but maybe I will dine with them, 
and come home." 

On July 18, 1900, Dr. Stebbins wrote : "Commence- 
ment at Harvard is a great day. The order and cere- 
mony of the occasion are impressive, and one feels 
that a university is a school not only of learning, but 
also of manners and propriety. There is in it, too, a 
mingled joy and sobriety, such as youth feels when 
his academic course is ended and the realities of prac- 
tical life and experience are before him. The scene 
is impressive, giving a kind of cosmopolitan view 
of society, its complex and multiplied interests and 
increasing wants. All sorts of learning, from Greek 
letters to veterinary medicine, from philosophy to 
dentistry, from fine arts to sanitary engineering, are 
included, to meet the demands of society in this 
modern age. As the scene moves on, the chief figure is 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 135 

President Eliot. With ease of natural dignity and 
refinement, he announces the graduation of those who 
have pursued prescribed studies, and confers academic 
honors upon men distinguished for public service in 
different fields. His voice, without effort, by simple 
force of articulation and clear utterance, is distinctly 
heard where other voices are lost — indistinct mur- 
murs among the waiting throng. This clear enuncia- 
tion is characteristic of the man. Among university 
men he is an acknowledged leader. In that patient, 
long-winded tact that pursues a purpose with untiring 
will, in the conception of the relation of means to ends, 
which is the wisdom of all great enterprises, and the 
common sense of daily life, he is unsurpassed. One 
says, T wish he were President of the United States.' 
But is a four years' hold of the policy of a party a 
greater influence than a thirty-years' presidency of a 
great university ? Influence may be difficult to define, 
but there is a distinction, no doubt, between quantity 
and quality. President Eliot has demonstrated, if 
anybody ever doubted it, that power must be at the 
center if anything would be made to go. 

"An important event is the coming of twelve 
hundred teachers from Cuba to be taught at Harvard 
and to observe the manners and customs of the coun- 
try. The fact that they wanted to come and that 
Harvard invited them to come is an unspeakable good. 
While war is to be deplored and the doctrine that 
might makes right is to be repudiated, it cannot be 



136 HORATIO STEBBINS 

denied that might makes a way for right. The coming 
of the teachers from Cuba is a signal event of our time, 
changing the lurid glare of war to a beacon-light 
warning and cheering the nations. Cuba is doing well, 
better than in centuries before." 

Later he wrote : "The Cubans have concluded their 
studies and delights, and are about to return. They 
have had a 4 great time.' Their coming may be reck- 
oned among the distinguished events of our time, and 
illustrates in a striking manner that in the great union 
and relation of peoples and nations in the modern age 
a great nation cannot put forth its power and receive 
the approval of mankind without bestowing some good 
upon the world." 

Of the death of Collis P. Huntington, he wrote : "A 
conspicuous figure in the business of the world, and a 
striking illustration of the union of daring yet careful 
energy and great opportunity, he was a born genius 
of business, with a keen scent for values. He asked no 
favors and gave none. He stuck to his 'line of things ' 
and knew what he was good for. He also had a fine 
perception of what other men were good for, and com- 
monly put the right man in the right place." 

Life in Dr. Stebbins's new surroundings opened very 
pleasantly. To be near his son and many friends, to 
have all his family around him, to be free from care 
and responsibility and yet to be able to preach as 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 137 

opportunity offered, was happiness. In August he 
preached in Plymouth, and was much impressed with 
its charm and historical interest. He wrote enter- 
tainingly of it for the Pacific Unitarian, in which he 
always felt a deep interest : 

"Monuments and memorials are here and there and 
everywhere, from the posts of the doors of ancient 
houses to chiseled stone of monumental grandeur. 
Relics of ancient custom, from spinning-wheels, fire- 
locks, and swords to records of nearly three centuries, 
give an impression of a past on the theater of human 
action which no scene of wild Nature in her awful 
silence suggests. The presence of man gives chief 
interest to the world, and his fortunes, brief as they 
are compared with the geologic ages, are forever the 
theme of history, philosophy, poetry, and song. The 
fame and interest of Plymouth will increase as time 
goes on and the mind of the country from East to West 
becomes more historic. The town holds its own. 
Though it will not be a great center of thronging popu- 
lation, it will be all the more on that account the 
appropriate keeper of some of the most interesting 
archives that attest the unbroken chain that unites 
our country with the great struggles for liberty 
throughout the world. What would have been the 
result if these rocky shores had been a field of gold? 
I will not undertake to picture the scene or write up 
the past with an if. I glory in the great and honorable 
past, and am not unmindful of the debt I owe to the 



138 HORATIO STEBBINS 

master-spirits who rule the race, yet 'I think it lucky 
I was born so late.' " 

In September his son, Horatio, entered the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, and as his daughter 
Lucy was in Radcliffe, the family home was established 
in Cambridge. 

In October occurred the fiftieth anniversary of 
the San Francisco church, and he sent a letter of 
greeting : 

"We do well to celebrate with praise, gratitude, and 
thanksgiving the half-century anniversary of our 
church. It has been a most honorable and much- 
beloved institution, and, under God, has kept alive the 
sacred fire kindled by this inspiration, and replenished 
the fountain of that stream that flows from age to age 
and from generation to generation, refreshing the life 
of man as long as time shall endure. 

"The origin of our church is a testimony of the com- 
mon want of our nature for some recognition of its 
divine relations, and is a sure guaranty that religion 
will never die out on the earth. While yet the site of 
this town was a heap of sand, and the lazy tide swept 
in upon a hitherto idle shore, a few men who felt that 
religion was the high and final interpretation of human 
life, in harmony with reason, intelligence, and moral 
sense, and that faith in God is the supreme action of 
the mind and heart and will, met in confidence and 
trust toward Him for mutual counsel and prayer, and 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 139 

laid the foundations of that spiritual structure the 
corner-stone of which is the heart of man. 

"From that beginning this church has had a con- 
stant life of worship, teaching, and work in harmony 
with those great principles of truth that are the es- 
sential things of faith and duty. We inquire for no 
man's private opinions, nor establish rules of believing 
as standards of salvation. Our passport is a sense of 
need and a desire to be partakers and helpers in that 
worship, teaching, and work in which our relations 
to God and one another are expressed. Our great 
affirmations are God, truth, and our fellow-men. To 
have had a part in founding this church on these eter- 
nal things that remain through all time or opinion, and 
to cherish all progress of thought in every realm of 
man's dominion or of God's inspiration, is, indeed, 
reasonable cause of gratitude ; and to be partaker and 
helper of its life and power is a source of present joy. 

"A half-century is a considerable period of time, 
reckoned by human days — a brief hour in the eternal 
years. But God is ever near and Truth is ever young, 
and by working with Him we have perpetual youth, 
and our eternal life goes on. So we hail those who have 
lived on into the nearer presence of God, and we salute 
those who are yet with us whose memory goes swiftly 
back to fifty years ago, or have later joined the un- 
unbroken line of living men as they move in divine 
procession. Salute them as they pass before us, the 
living generation that unites the future of the earth 



i 4 o HORATIO STEBBINS 

with the future of heaven and keeps unbroken the 
ranks of immortals as an unseen Hand waves the 
generations on or off the stage! Now, finally, salute 
the brethren each and all, named or unnamed — those 
who have wrought long and well and bear rich sheaves 
from the harvest of years, or those who go forth in the 
morning with the song of the reapers. Salute John 
Perry, the revered and honorable, and the host of 
others whose names cannot be written, besides noble 
women without number, on whom be honor and bless- 
ing evermore." 

In early October he had the great pleasure of revisit- 
ing his old parish at Portland, Maine. It is something 
of a test to go back to a place left thirty-six years 
before, but he found a few who cherished his memory, 
and a multitude who as children had either come under 
his influence or who had heard of him from their 
fathers. A large congregation gathered to hear him, 
and after the service crowded the parish house for 
nearly an hour to greet him. He preached with great 
vigor upon the possibilities of manhood, thrilling his 
hearers and giving the younger generation a better 
understanding of those traditions of his power under 
which they had grown up. 

He was able to assist Dr. Charles G. Ames at the 
funeral service of his lifelong friend, the Reverend 
Cyrus A. Bartol. About this time he contributed an 
article on Christmas and the New Year to the Pacific 
Unitarian^ a passage from which gives its quality : 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 141 

"What does the Son of Man represent? There have 
been a great many attempts to define Christianity, 
from a patent-right scheme of salvation to some plan 
of great believing that should be a divine contract 
between God and the soul ; but all our great convic- 
tions are apprehensions — not comprehensions. Our 
own being is as great a mystery as God's being, and 
we are so allied to Him by nature that we are called the 
children of God. Christianity is the impersonation in 
man and men of this common nature. The religion of 
Jesus is God in humanity ; or, as Theodore Parker said, 
'Christianity is Humanity' — that is, human nature 
at its best. All attempts to define it in dogmatic form 
will fail. Jesus was so human that he could say, 'I and 
my Father are one/ and Augustine said that Chris- 
tianity is in human nature, expressed in Jesus as the 
type and ideal of humankind." 

On January 22, 1901, he wrote entertainingly of 
winter : 

"Winter begins when it gets here ; spring when it's a 
mind to ; summer when it can't help it ; and autumn 
comes as wisdom comes! We all know how that is 
commonly late ! If scenery has any effect on civilized 
man's character or constitution, if climate changes the 
quality of his blood, this winter terribleness and glory 
must have had something to do with fashioning the 
northern races of mankind. But winter is not severe 
on men or on domestic animals, if they are well cared 
for. Animals grow fat, and men and women enjoy the 



142 HORATIO STEBBINS 



fine clear cold, if they are well protected ; and there is 
a kind of happy pride in standing before it, though 
unprotected none can stand. It is this necessity for 
protection and provision that has a moral effect not 
felt in milder latitudes. Almost all the birds and 
smaller animals are driven out by winter, but an ill- 
boding crow the other day sat on the branch of a 
melancholy elm yonder and cawed and cawed in that 
fine voice which the fox in the fable praised ; and now, 
while I write, a fine squirrel, with waving bush and 
lively action, runs across the brilliant snow, appar- 
ently happy as a lamb in May. But somber wisdom, 
melancholy grandeur, terrible power, and brilliant 
glories are the characteristics of winter. Nature puts 
on severe manners, relieved by cheerful fireside, do- 
mestic, and social joy. It is the season for study, for 
evening talk, and genial hospitalities. The glory and 
power of it impressed the Psalmist, who saw in it that 
sublime Will that looses the bands of Orion, or binds 
the sweet influences of the Pleiades." 

In November he wrote a charming letter to an 
eight-year-old San Francisco boy. 

"My dear Boy : Have you forgotten me? I think 
of you often and wish I could see you, and walk about 
with you. There are great elm trees here, and the 
name Elmwood Avenue is given to the street. Right 
over the way is the Lowell house, where the poet James 
Russell Lowell was born. Among these elms are many 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 143 

squirrels ! gray, with fine bushy tails and bright eyes. 
They are quite tame. Yesterday a fellow (squirrel, I 
mean) came to the door, and Mrs. Stebbins gave him 
a nut, and he ran with it up a tree, and sat down on his 
hind legs, his tail curled over him like a feather, and 
his eyes sparkling like gems ; and he cracked the nut 
and ate it, all the time looking down cheerfully, not 
afraid of falling. I thought of the fable that Emerson 
wrote about the Mountain and the Squirrel, and I 
said to myself that J would write to you about it. 
You know what a fable is : a story made up just to 
give a hint of something true, that he didn't think of 
before ! Ask your father to find the fable (I think he'll 
do it), and as you read it, imagine the squirrel sitting 
on his hind legs looking toward Mount Diablo and 
having a little talk. Learn the fable, not in a hurry, 
but, say, three lines a day ; and when you have got it 
so it will go itself if you open your mouth, write and 
tell about it — what you think it means. My love to 
you all." 

The following month he added: "I only want to 
tell you not to be in a hurry about that squirrel. He is 
here now. I see him, his fine bush over his back as he 
sits on his hind legs, looks every way, and then jumps ! 
I hope you will not have any trouble with your eyes. 
I have known boys and girls who have been obliged to 
wear glasses for a while, and then have got well soon. 
It makes a young fellow look very learned to wear 
glasses ! You would think of asking him some great 



144 HORATIO STEBBINS 



questions ! Thank your father for his fine letter to me. 

My love to all, especially to your sisters ! They do not 
know me, but then, I want them to know that I love 
you all. I am yours, dear boy, Horatio Stebbins." 

In a letter soon after New Year's Day, 1901, he 
wrote at length, concluding: "I have called myself, 
'Yours affectionately,' or something else as good for 
more than thirty years, and I stick to it yet !" 

At the annual meeting of the San Francisco church 
held in February, a telegram was sent to Dr. Stebbins : 
"Our gratitude and our regard increase as time re- 
veals the measure of the blessings we have enjoyed.' , 
In response he wrote : 

" My dear Mr. Symmes : The telegram in your 
name, and in the name of the people of the First Uni- 
tarian Church, means to me more of gratitude and love 
than I can express, and I beg of you all to let me go 
free with a voiceless thought that overflows my heart. 
Indulge me, though, if you will, in the expression of my 
great happiness in you all, in the inexhaustible resource 
I find in my experience as your minister and my 
citizenship among you for the lifetime of a generation. 
I have enjoyed a degree of intellectual and moral 
independence limited only by my ability to share the 
freedom of him whom the truth makes free. Your 
genial minds have been the climate most friendly to 
my nature, and your liberal hearts have responded with 
cheerful hospitality to noblest sentiments of humanity. 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 145 

"Your word to me spoken across the land carries 
with it a weight of meaning that causes my heart to 
quiver with emotion, and reason to find becoming 
refuge in humility. But I will speak. If I have, under 
God, and by the inspiration of his spirit, illumined 
your common mind and heart with thoughts that send 
their beams afar, making this world more human, the 
heart of man more prophetic, the human more divine 
and the divine more human to our imagination and 
affection, then indeed have I cause for the deepest 
gratitude and the happiest joy. The greatest blessing 
that man can receive is a thought, an imagination, a 
conviction concerning his own nature and his relation 
to God ; that gives courage to faith, and transforms 
the world to a scene of discipline and teaching for 
moral and spiritual beings in the likeness of God. In 
this great faith may we all be living, above the limi- 
tations or contradictions of provincial thought. In 
the name of God our Father and in the name of our 
common human heart, I salute you all, and may 
blessing, honor, truth, and love be upon you and abide 
with you evermore." 

In March Dr. Stebbins was seriously ill with pneu- 
monia, but his good constitution withstood the attack, 
and he was soon preaching now and then. In July he 
preached in Dorchester, and he very much enjoyed 
visiting, in company with his son Horatio, the scenes of 
his early youth, near Springfield. No member of the 



146 HORATIO STEBBINS 

family now lives at the old homestead, but it was a 
satisfaction to take luncheon in the house in which he 
was born, and to show his son the fields where he 
ploughed and mowed as a boy. 

In September he was asked to take a prominent part 
at the Saratoga Conference, but felt that his health 
was too precarious to justify it. 

On October 2 his son Roderick was married to Edith 
Endicott Marean, in Appleton Chapel of Harvard 
College, Cambridge. Dr. Stebbins shared the wedding 
service with Dr. Samuel M. Crothers, and the dignity 
of his manner, as he uttered his few words of affection- 
ate recognition and counsel, made the ceremony one 
never to be forgotten by even the least interested of 
the many who heard them. He was in bright spirits 
at the reception which followed and made it evident 
that he was especially happy in this marriage. 

On February 22, 1902, he wrote a kindly letter, one 
sentence of which showed his lessening strength: "I 
have been bottled up for a week with something, and 
may not be out for another week. I do not go out much, 
and then not alone. I notice the dropped stitches." 
He regretfully informed me of the fact that Dr. Charles 
W. Eliot had been obliged to give up his promised 
visit to the Pacific Coast, and suggested a "disappoint- 
ment addendum" to an announcement which he had 
sent — his last article. The letter concludes : 

"I cannot write more now. Yours ever 

" Horatio Stebbins " 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 147 

These were the last words penned by that loving 
hand. He had been weary all day and was taken sud- 
denly down that night. The attack was much like 
that of two years before, and was followed by alter- 
nating periods of improvement and relapse. His 
friend, the Reverend A. W. Jackson, was in Cambridge 
on March 19 and called to inquire for him. Hearing 
that he was in the house, Dr. Stebbins expressed a wish 
to see him, and Mr. Jackson went to his room. "To 
my great surprise and delight," he wrote, "I found 
him sitting up and dressed. He was apparently weak, 
but his eye was clear, his countenance did not look 
wan, he was apparently free from pain, and the old 
smile was there. His conversation was in his noblest 
vein — of books and thoughts and friends.' ' 

Among the many San Francisco friends to whom Dr. 
Stebbins was warmly attached was Kate Douglas 
Wiggin Riggs, whom he befriended and helped when 
she came to San Francisco from Santa Barbara, a 
talented and ambitious kindergartner, with her mother 
and her sister, Miss Nora Smith. They were frequent 
and welcome guests at the family table, and were very 
near through all the changing years. On March 31, 
he dictated through his wife this tribute of his undy- 
ing love : 

"Dear Kate, What you say transcends all my 
powers of expression, but if I should let go I don't 
know where I should begin or end. You have always 



148 HORATIO STEBBINS 

been among my great admirations, and my intellectual 
and moral delights. That I have had any influence 
or standing with you has increased my self-respect, 
tempered by gratitude and humility. What can I say 
but repeat what you know already — my great affec- 
tion for you all, your husband, your mother, Nora, 
the ever-beloved and honored, whom to know is pride 
enough for a lifetime, and gratitude to nil the heart 
with joy." 

Shortly before the final attack and death of Dr. 
Stebbins the eightieth birthday of Edward Everett 
Hale was royally celebrated in Boston and elsewhere. 
Dr. Stebbins was too ill to attend. He said several 
times, "If I were going to speak, there is one thing I 
should say." Finally, he took pencil and paper, and 
wrote the following words, the last which were written 
by his own hand: 

"The time will come when men will ask, Who was 
he ? His religion was that universal principle of human 
nature that includes mankind. It is that great prin- 
ciple which, carried into the world of thought, compels 
all men, when brought face to face with it, to confess 
that neither station nor wealth, nor conspicuous 
popularity, is the final test of greatness, but that 
mysterious quality that we recognize as character, 
diffused through all the activities of the mind, uniting 
the manly and the godly in one. Let those who will 
undertake to define it, they will fail. It has many ele- 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 149 

ments in combination that defy all chemistry, reveal- 
ing God in man. It is flesh and blood, and bone and 
marrow, and nerve and brain, suffused with feeling, 
free will, moral force, imagination, and love." 

This indicates how fully and firmly he maintained 
to the last his intellectual and spiritual faculties. 

On March 22 he dictated a long letter full of gen- 
erous affection, and in good courage. He said : " Your 
desire to see me, ardently expressed, is sincerely felt 
and reciprocated. Time and events only can de- 
cide." He concludes with : "I am living on reduced 
strength which I use with economy in the enjoyment 
of many blessings, and in gratitude for all good like 
yours. In all this Mrs. Stebbins and myself are ever 
united and we give you and Winifred our abounding 
love." 

A few days later he became notably weaker, and 
suffered almost unendurable pain for two weeks, so 
that he prayed for release. He was calm and collected 
when free from agonizing pain, and on April 4 he 
dictated a dispatch to San Francisco : " Salute all the 
people, and give them my blessing. Let them have a 
service of praise and prayer in the church, Sunday 
morning, April 13." On the 8th he breathed his last. 
A noble life had ended; a great heart was at rest. 
The private funeral on Friday morning, April n, 1902, 
was conducted by Dr. Samuel M. Crothers. The 
burial the following day was at Portland, Maine. 



150 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Several years before Dr. Stebbins had prepared with 
calm consideration a memorandum of the order he 
would like to have followed at his funeral service. 
A few weeks before the end he asked his son Roderick 
to send it to San Francisco, as expressing his wishes. 
In form and substance it is so characteristic that it is 
given. He especially asked that all eulogy and remarks 
be omitted and his wishes were reverently respected. 
The service was tenderly beautiful and impressive. 
Loving hands had appropriately decorated the church 
with flowers; friends from far and near gathered to 
express their devotion; Mr. Leavitt's sermon was 
singularly fit, inferentially applicable to the noble life. 
The singing of his favorite hymns was sympathetic, 
and the atmosphere throughout breathed the deepest 
affection and reverence. 

Dr. Stebbins's Memorandum follows: "I suggest 
this order of service at my funeral, if it be well- 
pleasing and will relieve friends of care :" 

1. Organ. 

2. " Lead, Kindly Light " — Solo. 

3. Prayer by Minister and People: "Blessed is the Lord 
God of Ages, who never ceaseth to draw more nigh.'' 

4. Bible Reading: John's Gospel, 20: 1-17. 

5. Prayer by Minister and People :"Lo! at length the True 
Light." 

6. The Lord's Prayer, by Minister. 

7. Hymn 136. "Great God, how Infinite art Thou": by 
the Congregation. 

8. Last words by Minister, the People all standing: "I 
heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write: 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 151 

From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord; even so saith the spirit, for they rest from their 
labors and their works do follow them : — The Grace of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. 
Amen." 

At the concurrent hour a memorial service was held 
in the Cambridge church, under the direction of Dr. 
Crothers. Dr. Hale offered the prayer; the Reverend 
Francis Tiffany spoke of Dr. Stebbins's early life, and 
of the impressions that his high ideals had made on 
his fellow-students. From his father he inherited his 
strength of character and rugged independence ; and 
from his mother, who was a woman of deep religious 
feeling and poetic nature, came his tender sympathy. 
Directness of speech, distinction of manner, and power 
of original statement distinguished him through his 
entire career. 

President Charles W. Eliot referred to his great 
service to the State, saying that he had done more 
than could be estimated to give the California Uni- 
versities the place they occupy among the educational 
institutions of the land and to shape their present 
standards. As a result of his presence it is everywhere 
understood that these universities are built on free- 
dom of thought. He referred to Dr. Stebbins's ability 
to stand alone as a leader of men, independent and 
strong ; and his finest tribute was in citing as proof of 
immortality Dr. Stebbins's noble life. He said: "In 
the presence of a growing and expanding soul like that 



1 52 HORATIO STEBBINS 

of Dr. Stebbins, men feel that there is something in 
man independent of the body, not born to die." 

Dr. George Batchelor gratefully recalled the char- 
acter of his influence. He applied to him the words 
of Paul: "For God hath not given us the spirit of 
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 
His fearless spirit, his power of leadership, his loving 
sympathy with the young, and his comforting courage 
with the thought of old age were all included in a 
"sound mind." 

Dr. James De Normandie spoke of his work in 
Portland, and then added: "When Dr. Stebbins suc- 
ceeded Starr King in California, he did as much for 
that State, but in other ways, as did the golden-lipped 
preacher who saved it to the Union. It does not often 
fall to the lot of any man to have such opportunity 
given, for a man to have the gifts to lay a whole land 
under obligation for his noble work. There was in 
Dr. Stebbins a rare union of power and pathos, of 
strength and sweetness, of fierce denunciation of the 
wrong-doer and tender sympathy for every burdened 
or penitent one, of the prophet's vision and the 
prophet's faith in the day of triumphant good. Added 
to these qualities, the secret of that remarkable min- 
istry, reaching to eighty years, was its transparent 
reality. Here was no sensationalism, no artificiality, 
no theatrical posing, only entire compliance in a few 
spiritual verities. By these he lived and wrought, and 
in their peace he calmly passed on." 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 153 

The benediction was pronounced by his lifelong 
friend, Dr. Edward Everett Hale. 

On April 22, the Unitarian Club of California paid 
tribute of its great respect and gratitude by the 
adoption of fervent resolutions, and on April 23 a 
memorial service was held by the Pacific Coast Con- 
ference, in session at San Francisco. 

The press, east and west, was generous and deeply 
appreciative. A single sentence from the Christian 
Register editorial is taken as representative of all: 

"He was a tower of strength, a steadfast promoter 
of large ideas, moral ideals and the old-fashioned 
virtues which were by inheritance and tradition his 
own. He was stalwart in person, of strong mind, firm 
will, unshaken integrity, and unspotted life. At his 
best, his preaching was in the higher ranges of the 
religious life. He suggested the moral grandeur of the 
universe in which we live, and the dignity of human 
nature and human duty." 

In addition, many friends and admirers sent words 
of affection or reminiscence. From these, that of the 
Reverend John White Chadwick is given in part, as 
it reveals personality in a manner no one else has 
approached. He writes : 

"We shall all agree, I think, that the peculiar power 
which Dr. Stebbins exerted was that of a grand and 
unique personality ; and personality is always hard to 



154 HORATIO STEBBINS 

analyze. The whole is greater than the sum of all the 
parts. There was the towering form, — 

' the front of Jove himself ; 
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
A combination, and a form, indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man.' 

There was that marvelous voice ; the 'music of mild 
lutes' was in it, and anon it was a 1 clarion of disdain' ; 
but these were but instruments. Behind them was 
the informing soul ; and that streamed into everything 
he said and did, and made the ungirt spontaneity of 
his private life of one piece with his most carefully 
considered public speech. He was a master of expres- 
sion, and struck out phrases of unique and startling 
beauty, which reminded you not of books, but of the 
living world. They smacked of the soil in which he 
grew. They were ruddy with the hue of his immediate 
experience. He was no phrase-maker except as his 
large thoughts demanded adequate expression. His 
humanity was his central trait. I never knew a man 
who could more vitally appropriate the Latin poet's 
boast. Nothing human was foreign to him, least of all 
the passions which devastate our human life. I have 
heard him talk of these with a kind of sacred fury in 
his speech ; and he was as pitiful as Jesus of the sinful 
folk. Yet he was not more human in his awful sense 
of life's tragic implications than in his delight of 
everything that was compact of human pleasantness 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 155 



and kindliness, and I cannot easily conceive a kinder 
spirit than his own. He was a great citizen. I could 
not walk the streets of San Francisco by his side with- 
out being touched by the reverence and affection in 
which he was held by the people of that city. But I 
shall best remember him saying the morning grace at 
his own table, the words were so simple and so strong, 
and pervaded with such a tender sense of the perfect 
mutual understanding of heavenly Father and the 
man who prayed." 

Mr. Chadwick also wrote for the memorial this 
beautiful sonnet: 

TO HORATIO STEBBINS 

On the same day, thine by the Western sea, 

Mine where the Eastern rolls its music in, 

Our work began, the continent between 

Our sundered ways. Thwart that immensity, 

When doubt and fear had well-nigh mastered me, 

How has thy cheery message been 

A trumpet calling me to rise and win 

O'er foes abject triumphant victory! 

The Eastern and the Western ocean make 
One music. Even so thy heart and mine 
Have beat accordant. Silent now is thine ; 
Yet still from thy great spirit I will take 
Fresh courage daily, conquer by thy sign, 
Be something braver, better for thy sake. 

Dr. A. W. Jackson, who formerly lived in Santa 
Barbara, California, later in Concord, Massachusetts, 
wrote : 



156 HORATIO STEBBINS 

"In my long acquaintance with him, I was always 
peculiarly sensible of his moral elevation. This was 
not on occasions only, when strong impulses might 
move him, but in the unrestraint of private affection, 
as in the pulpit or on the platform, there it was, a 
grace that never forsook him. In his fiercest wrath, 
he never lost his poise ; in his keenest sorrow, he wit- 
nessed to those about him that a suffering may be 
an unshaken soul. He could err in judgment, err in 
action, as all may do ; but even in error men felt him 
noble. He may not have belonged to the order of 
saints, but surely to that of heroes. His mien was 
patrician, but his manhood was imperial. 

"Another feature was what I will dare to call a 
genius for friendship. A man so positive in his con- 
victions, dealing with so many interests and ' ever a 
fighter,' is reasonably sure to provoke resentments; 
and Dr. Stebbins did so. At the same time he at- 
tracted people to him as few ever can, and held them 
in an allegiance that is much too rare. In that far 
Western city he was surrounded by a cordon of friends 
that neither personal malice nor partisan antipathy 
could break through, men and women whom even 
error could hardly have alienated and whom trial 
made more steadfast. The explanation is easy enough ; 
it was a case of a large nature attracting other 
natures, and holding them steadfast by its own 
fidelity." 

A sonnet, written by Mr. Jackson at the time he was 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 157 

preparing his Life of Martineau, associated lovingly 
the two leaders, and should find place here: 

TO HORATIO STEBBINS 

Dear Friend, whose noble presence fails to show 
The regal grandeur of thy inner plan, — 
Patrician mien, but an imperial man, 
I link thy name with that of Martineau. 
He sage, thou prophet ! His the orient glow 
Of one who all surveys from peaks of Darien. 
Thine to call back dead souls to life again : 
Isaiah's flame, the tones of Cicero. 

He is the Phosphor of the coming day ; 

Awakener thou of those who dwell in night. 

Through him men see the height, through thee adore ; 

And they who write your epitaphs should say 

Of him, "He touched the mountain crests with light." 

Of thee, "He thrilling witness to its glory bore. ,, 

These words of loving appreciation are but few of 
the many that were written. Wherever Dr. Stebbins 
was known, he was beloved, and the extent of reverent 
regard for him testifies to the breadth and depth of his 
humanity. 

Horatio Stebbins was a type of America's best and 
most characteristic manhood. He was essentially a 
preacher, set apart by fitness and divine desire to be a 
teacher and inspirer of his fellow-men. He was utterly 
fearless in following where truth seemed to lead. He 
often saw many sides where over-zealous little souls 
saw but one, and was patient by reason of profound 
faith. He was not of the class of ardent reformers who 



158 HORATIO STEBBINS 

prescribe small remedies for great difficulties. Nothing 
disturbed his sublime faith ; nothing that contradicted 
the goodness, wisdom, and love of God could enter his 
mind or heart He believed in the realities of moral 
and spiritual being. He never allowed amiable com- 
monplaces to confuse his meaning, and never shirked 
an issue when it could not honorably be avoided. 
Thousands can testify to his generosity of spirit and 
his ever ready helpfulness. No service or kindness was 
too great for him to render to others. His manner 
sometimes deceived those who did not know him well, 
but he proved his love for his fellow-men by constant 
service and sacrifice. 

Through his firm faith in spiritual verities, his keen 
insight, and his firmly logical mind Dr. Stebbins was a 
seer. His fine imagination, his delicate sensibility, and 
his originality of expression constituted him a poet. 
As a speaker he was eloquent in the highest sense. 
Rarely has such profound and virile thought been so 
beautifully expressed. His prose style was admirable, 
and through its poetic imagery and aptness of illus- 
tration was often more akin to poetry than much writ- 
ing accorded that classification by reason of metrical 
form. 

His burial spot at Portland is marked by a granite 
boulder from a New England pasture, simply inscribed. 
It is a fitting symbol of the simplicity and integrity 
of his life and character. Its solidity and individ- 
uality are akin to his. It owes its strength and 



QUIET YEARS IN CAMBRIDGE 159 



symmetry to Its power of resistance to disintegrating 
forces. His character was as firm as granite. Time 
and events had softened the outline, but had not 
changed the substance. He served God with all the 
consecration of his Pilgrim ancestors. He had the 
daring faith of Job, and powerfully set forth the reality, 
the all-embracing power and love, of God. His un- 
questioning trust, and his passion for truth ; his scorn 
for the ignoble and reliance on right, his serenity and 
his reverence made him a constant influence for good. 
Great as was his power as a preacher and a minister 
to his fellow-men, he transcended all his manifesta- 
tions and was greater as a man. 

The sun still shines, and happy, blithesome birds 
Are singing on the swaying boughs in bloom. 
My eyes look forth and see no sign of gloom, 
No loss casts shadow on the grazing herds ; 
And yet I know a grief that feeble words 
Can ne'er express, for in the silent tomb 
Is laid the body of my friend, the doom 
Of silence on that matchless voice. Now girds 
My spirit for the struggle he would praise. 
A leader viewless to the mortal eye 
Still guides my steps, still calls with clarion cry 
To deeds of honor, and my thoughts would raise 
To seek the truth and share the love on high. 
With loyal heart I'll follow all my days. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LETTERS TO A SON 
1881-1899 

The intimate companionship with his father, in which 
Roderick Stebbins had grown up, made his departure 
for Harvard College a serious event to both. On the 
day he left home, Dr. Stebbins began a journal, to 
afford in some degree a needed channel for self- 
expression. It was not long continued, however, 
merging naturally into daily letters to his boy, who 
was in turn hardly less faithful. The close relation 
between the two was kept up for many years by these 
almost daily letters. The pages of the brief journal, 
which includes not more than a score of large fools- 
cap pages, reveal a side of Dr. Stebbins's character 
which many never discovered the deep humility of 
the man, his self-questionings and his utter surrender 
to the eternal strength and love which were the heart 
of his religion. 

August 25, 1877. Roderick left this morning for 
Cambridge. The parting with him is very severe and 
has subjected my tired heart to a new strain. It has 
been a rough day, indeed, and tempests are within. 
I am truly grateful that he does not suffer as I do. I 
learn daily something new of the power of suffering. 
I have written almost a sermon to-day. Nothing but 



LETTERS TO A SON 161 

work would have kept me from the deepest distress, 

and as it is I have broken down once utterly But 

I am strong now, and clear, calm light rests on all my 
summits. 

September 2. This is Roderick's birthday ! Eighteen 
happy years ! His heart has beat within mine, and it 
has not been easy to tell whether it was mine or his 
that had the deepest throb. 

[Dr. Stebbins seldom stopped long enough in his 
thought for his daily work to consider himself, but one 
single entry that follows may indicate how little he 
realized what he gave to others. Only by genuine 
understanding of the man can one know how truly his 
calm serenity implied not indifference nor insensibil- 
ity, but conquest.] 

November 5. It was twenty-six years ago to-day that 
I was ordained at Fitchburg. O swift years ! and how 
deep is my disappointment in myself ! I am not what 
I ought to be and what I might have been, either in 
my attainments and power to set forth moral and 
spiritual truth, or in the elevation and resource of my 
character How little I know, and how weak I am ! 

[Two years later Dr. Stebbins took up his discarded 
journal, with a word of half-regret that he had let 
his "daily talk" with Roderick supersede entirely the 
independent value of memoranda "that catch the 
light and shade of life and thought as they fly."] 

September 6, 1879. Roderick left this morning to 
return to Cambridge. Although I parted with him in 



1 62 HORATIO STEBBINS 



complete self-control, it yet cost me a sharp pain, and 
after he had gone I went into his room, looked in the 
vacant places, and buried my face in my hands and 
wept. I find it no easier to part with him than a year 
ago. I am most happy and blessed in him. I must not 
let my love interfere with him, or stand in the way 
of his own individuality. Neither must I allow my 
affection to intrude upon him. His mind must be 
respected and my love must be wise and high, not too 
familiar, and certainly not meddlesome. 

September 7. How this strange sense of Roderick's 
absence oppresses me ! It has almost overcome me two 
or three times to-day. When he left me on the 25 th 
of August two years ago, I thought that would be my 
severest trial ; but hard as it was, this is hardly less so. 

[The preceding extracts have been given because no 
other available material reveals so clearly the tender- 
ness and strength of affection that controlled Dr. 
Stebbins in his family and home relations. Let the 
first selection from his letters be one written on an 
anniversary of his father's birth. He held his father's 
memory in loving reverence and often spoke of him.] 

March 5, 1881 
This is the anniversary of my father's birthday. He 
died in January , 1859, aged eighty-one years. He was 
a man of limited experience, but of uncommon endow- 
ment ; a polemic in politics, religion, and morals. His 



LETTERS TO A SON 163 

life was spent near the place where he was born, and 
he rarely went beyond the notch in the hills on the 
east, or the level plains on the west, where the setting 
sun measured his earthly days. He was a man of native 
dignity of mind and feeling, and everything low or 
vulgar shrank away abashed from his presence. He 
had more books than all the families in District No. 10. 
Among the first books I ever saw were Miss Maria 
Edgeworth's "Evenings at Home," which he read 
aloud to us as we sat round the evening fire. He 
was esteemed the wise and long-headed man by his 
neighbors, and was respected and beloved. He was 
singularly happy with children, though he did not 
fully sympathize with youth owing to his temperament 
and constitution. I can never forget the singular 
tenderness of his voice, the sweetness of his manners, 
or the calmness of his authority. My mother died 
when I was six years old. The influence of that event 
on my father's mind made strong impression on me. 
I was too young to feel the force of what had happened, 
but his great grief, restrained and borne with that 
calmness that nothing but depth can give, impressed 
me in a manner that I can never fully describe, and 
has left its stamp upon my own character. Often in 
my mature years have the lessons which he taught 
me sprung up like fountains to refresh me. My love 
for him was very great, as was the love of all his sons. 

I have been sitting here having Mr. Congdon tell 



1 64 HORATIO STEBBINS 

about remarkable horses that he has known ! A little 
queer one-sided knowledge is pleasant sometimes. I 
like to get hold of a man who will tell me some odd 
thing away from my habits and tastes, though I have 
a taste for horses. He wants me to go out to the track 
and see a span there; $25,000! what extravagance 
and nonsense, when there are probably a thousand 
children in the city not as well fed or clothed ! 

When I was a youth, I worked in the open field : I 
often felt that it was hard, and I longed to be free ; 
but when I began to study, I found that hard, and it 
seemed to me that to work with my muscles or the 
bare earth would be a rest! A noble self-direction 
always requires firmness, and often it requires forti- 
tude. It requires more energy to lead a true student 
life, than it does to pile up stones in the field, or to 
weed corn in the heat of the sun. You have not been 
situated as I was, but I hope you will get as much 
discipline of will and purpose in academic life as I got 
in rustic labors. Concentration is the soul of discipline. 

I have just heard of the death of Dr. Putnam, of 
Roxbury. The event calls to mind some incidents in 
my early experience. I knew him when I first entered 
on my professional life. He used to go to Sterling, his 
native town, and to the old family homestead to spend 
his vacations. When I first went to Fitchburg I rode 
over to Sterling, a dozen miles, to see him. I formed a 



LETTERS TO A SON 165 

great liking for him. He was a man of stalwart good 
sense and roundabout wisdom. He was a fine preacher 
to eminently respectable people. He was an immense 
reader of current literature, and his sermons were 
suggested by the illustration of life and experience that 
he found in his reading. His style was simple, pure, 
and strong; and his manners in the pulpit were a 
happy combination of reverence, manliness, and en- 
thusiasm. 

About Bismarck's policy with socialism, I did not 
write, because it would lead into discussions that I 
could hardly state in a manner fit for a theme. The 
gist of it is this : There is in Germany a keen popular 
discontent concerning the present social conditions 
of men, based on wealth, rank, labor, capital, etc. 
The discussions call in question the present order of 
things, and threaten to remodel society. Bismarck's 
policy is in the suppression of debate in the Reichstag, 
and the suppression of the press. He proposes to 
throttle free discussion, and thus shut the safety- 
valve of popular discontent. That policy is fatal in the 
long run, and will make him the hero of a great folly, 
and maybe a great disaster. Errors of thought and 
intellect are not to be corrected by putting bits in the 
mouths of men. Bismarck is verging, so it seems to me, 
toward that intoxication of self-will, in which every- 
thing and anything seems possible, because they are 
desired; when force is greater than insight, and 



1 66 HORATIO STEBBINS 



courage greater than far-sightedness, and will be more 
conspicuous than sympathy with the day and hour. 
His great services may yet be balanced by a stupen- 
dous folly. 

I met to-day, and he told me he had noth- 
ing to do. I am sorry for it. It is a trial to any man, 
and it is stupid and exasperating to a bright and ac- 
tive fellow like him. If ever you have felt that work 
is painful, and duty irksome, think of the utter misery 
of doing nothing, and having nothing to do. I have 
been much blessed in all my life. I have never been 
stranded on the shore of involuntary idleness, but have 
always found a place of usefulness, where I could earn 
my bread by giving in work for value received. 

I am thinking that you may be in Northboro to- 
night. Your description of ice-scenery calls to mind 
the most remarkable display of that kind I ever saw. 
It was in February, 1845. Nothing could surpass the 
brilliancy of the scene, under the illumination of the 
moon. The world seemed hung in pearls and diamonds, 
and every tree was transformed with light ! A grove 
was more beautiful than the night-heavens, and 
seemed like a city let down from the sky. The dry 
sticks of rails and fence glanced in all the colors of the 
prism ! I walked with Mary Fisher from the home- 
stead under the elms to the weekly lyceum in the town 
hall, where the people of the village met. You may be 



LETTERS TO A SON 167 

there to-night! Happy years have come and gone: 
yet not gone, for their beauty and love remain, and 
can never be lost. 

Moody and Sankey are here. I think they are 
simple and plain men, not mercenary, and inclined to 
put the invitations and persuasions of religion on the 
grounds of reverence, duty, and love. They do not 
deal in the old staple doctrines of depravity, nor fill 
the background with lurid flames and selfish fears. 
They will draw crowds. The secret of it is the singing 
on the minor key. It kindles emotion, and unseals the 
fountain of tears, but it does not supply that power to 
the will which nothing but the enthusiasm of duty and 
love can do. Their influence will be wide and shallow, 
and soon will pass away. While they are a great im- 
provement on the average revivalist of former years, 
both in their probable simplicity of character and in 
the superiority of their appeals to the sentiments, I 
do not feel that they can do much for me, nor am I at 
all inclined to join them, or to oppose them. 

There are two classes of minds, my son, which are 
brought out very clearly in their relation to religion, 
and the questions involved in religion. One class is 
hard, dry, sterile, unimaginative, and dogmatic, 
whether believing or skeptical. It settles everything 
within positive, definite boundaries of affirmation or 
negation, because it sees so little. The other class, 



« 



1 68 HORATIO STEBBINS 



longer-winged, longer-minded, deeper-breathing, with 
a roundabout and beyond-looking sympathy, see and 
feel the many-sidedness of truth, and are perplexed or 
grieved with its seemingly ever-changing, kaleido- 
scopic, transient appearance. To such natures, en- 
dowed with sight and deeper capacity of joy and 
suffering, there is always a struggle, until the nature 
of truth is felt and the mind and soul and heart are 
brought into sympathy with it. 

Your questionings are prophetic, and even if they 
are trying, they are the clarifying process of the mind. 
In the first place, you must remember that all our 
great convictions are growths and not manufactures. 
Dogmatic religion can make a faith to order, the 
expedient of weakness and fear, but those whose hearts 
are nourished by the divine spirit can wait for dew 
and rain and wind. The thirst for "positive knowl- 
edge" in things spiritual is only an ignorant desire to 
extend the empire of mathematics over the kingdom of 
God. The demonstrable is soon exhausted, and what is 
apprehended is much more influential with us than 
what is comprehended. The great moral verities of 
our being are laid in eternal strength : but they do not 
account to us for all the methods of truth, more than 
yonder light by the sea casts revealing splendor upon 
the sun, or makes plain to us the soft and noiseless 
axle of the earth. They reveal, indeed, that light, here 
or there, is of the same nature, and all strength is from 



LETTERS TO A SON 169 



the same will. Here, then, we are firm. The divine 
manifestations in man are the highest theme on which 
the mind can dwell. Historic grandeur invests Jesus 
as the unique expression of God in humanity. He must 
have felt himself to be the exponent of the race. His 
life and being are our common nature awakened and 
living in its relation to God. I cannot speak of him 
as "a beautiful spirit" unless beauty is made synony- 
mous with power. His lovely, terrible, unique person- 
ality is what draws my wonder and love. Do you ask 
how he came to be that unique illustration of man in 
his divine relations? That is the mystery, also, of 
every other personality. What makes one man differ 
from another in the type of his being ? It is the secret 
of all personality. It is true of every genuine life that 
is hid in God. How came Shakespeare to transcend all 
men, and yet to be recognized by all as a fuller repre- 
sentative of their own nature ? It is his very character- 
istic to be natural, while he is so infinitely above us ! 
While Christ is unique, the mystery is not unique. 
It is universal : we see it in daily life, and at our own 
firesides. We have little conception what our nature 
is in its fullness when brought into its highest relation 
with God. If you ask me what he is, I answer he is the 
personification of man, universal man, in his divine 
relations; and illustrates you and me in the possi- 
bilities of our being, under God. There is nothing new 
in Christianity but Jesus himself. There is not one 
single phase of spiritual truth in the New Testament 



170 HORATIO STEBBINS 

that had not flashed on the soul of some man before. 
The stones of Angel Island were here before the Bank 
of California, but they were not the Bank of Cali- 
fornia. Yet the only thing that is new is the Bank 
itself. The order and unity and beauty, brought out of 
what was before disorder and fragmentary form — such 
is the personality of Jesus in the moral and spiritual 
world. 

Yours of the 21st came at breakfast. We notice with 
great satisfaction all that interests you. I am pleased 
that you have remembered your Uncle Roderick. 
Your words of simple and affectionate sympathy will 
be a great satisfaction. We are disposed, my son, to 
undervalue the expression of our thoughts and feelings 
to others : If only we can do it with simplicity and 
respectful sympathy it has great influence. To do it 
with true gentleness of manners and yet with moral 
strength is a great means of growth to ourselves and a 
great support to others. 

I am gratified to get your idea of Irving. He must be 
a great actor, who presents his characters from ideas 
within, rather than from patterns without. Actors, 
generally, are only imitators, not men of inspiration 
and idea. Can any man personify completely all 
there is in any great character of Shakespeare ? What 
a creature Shakespeare is! I have received great 
benefit from comparing him in his sphere with Jesus 
in his sphere. They both seem matchless in theii 



LETTERS TO A SON 171 

endowment. The one deals with human nature in its 
thoughts and passions on the ordinary plane of life ; 
the other carries that human nature into its divine 
relations, and shows man in relation with God. 

I have just received the memoir of Charles Lowe, my 
classmate in the Divinity School. It is a fine record of 
a pure and spotless life. He kept a journal! I have 
not ! Do you ? It has many advantages : first, it brings 
one to time, and compels a great discipline of the will ; 
second, it fastens many thoughts, doings, sayings, 
events, which in the accumulations of experience afford 
a rich fund of satisfaction. 

Mr. 's apparent neglect, is another of those 

things that you have got to get used to. It is some- 
times very trying. Indulgent feeling, a kind of round- 
about wisdom and charity, may find many apologies 
for such things in a man, but there is a residuum of 
impatience, and a feeling, too, that one will not expose 
himself again to what seems an indecorous neglect. 
The accidents of conduct, my son, are very great, and 
a man by a tone of voice or an air of indifference may 
lose the opportunity of a lifetime, when he has no 
thought of it ! No man uses the English language cor- 
rectly ; and no man is up to the finest conduct always ; 
truth is one, error is multiple. 

Your account of confirms my general im- 
pression. The great balance and equity of the mind 



172 HORATIO STEBBINS 

is in having a taste for truth, or a poetic appreciation 
of it. Then the intellect may be as reckless as a comet, 
but reason and the heart will be strong as the sun. 
To put things merely analytically is the office of an 
incomplete development. A noble mind has centrif- 
ugal and centripetal tendencies; and if one is too 
great or out of harmony with the other, you whirl 
into bleak space, or are drawn, like the moth, into the 
flames. 

I am impressed with your appreciation of our old 
and faithful servant. No better test of a man's man- 
ners and heart can be made than his way with those 
of inferior position, and especially his servants. There 
is that fine gradation of respect which makes them feel 
your sincerity, and also keeps their respect for you ; 
which is as important to them as to you. 

The sentimentalism of which you speak is a weak- 
ness, and sometimes an affectation. To be moved by 
fine emotions and sensibilities, restrained power and 
thought and feeling, gives the keynote of all moral 
force in conduct or address. You will strike the right 
key in "doubt and belief." What is doubt? and what 
is belief? Doubt is the spiritual world unsubdued, as 
the world of matter is a blind abstraction until intelli- 
gence has made its conquests. It is God's challenge 
to our souls to find him. Why has he not made belief 
as plain as the road to town, and stormed our spirits 
into faith in spite of us? Why does he stand at the 



LETTERS TO A SON 173 

door and gently knock? Why does he not knock the 
door down and come in and take forcible possession ? 
Because life is a conquest, and faith is a conquest over 
the dark obstruction of the senses, and the rude powers 
of our minds. Doubt is the childhood of the soul, the 
under-age of the will, and belief is the mind and heart 
trained to duty and love. If you come to particular 
doubts and to particular beliefs, there is yet a vast 
domain that must in all minds of any depth and rich- 
ness be undecided. There are many things, on which 
to be decided is evidence only of a barren, sterile 
mind. The great beliefs are like climates; they are 
not berries, and pickles, and preserves. 

The attempt to gain influence through second-rate 
motives is always degrading, and commonly in the end 
deceives the inventor. Serious, hearty earnestness, 
equally removed from lugubrious piety and irreverent 
frivolity, is the real power of any man's personality. 
There are a hundred things, in which there is "no 
hurt," that will ruin a man's influence before he knows 
it. This pertains especially to manners. To be genial 
without being silly, to be social yet easily dignified, is 
one way in which men gain influence, not by being 
like others, but by being unlike them. This matter of 
giving substitutes for religion, such as some scheme 
of philosophy, or a kink in science, is a short-breathed 
way of getting along, and deludes by a kind of mo- 
mentary attraction, as a baby is diverted from his 



174 HORATIO STEBBINS 

mothers breast by a red apple, to be weary of it soon, 
and turn again to the fountains of life. The religious 
idea in things, events, and experience — that is the 
matter for the preacher ; that is insight, and to set 
forth what he sees makes him teacher of men. That, 
while it runs parallel with ordinary knowledge, reveals 
a human element which the ordinary man does not see 
until it is shown to him ! " 

I have read swiftly Masson's sketch of Keats, just 
to refresh my mind and feeling with the impression of 
so fine a creature. He seems to dash the doctrine of 
heredity all in pieces. Indeed, heredity is not a law, 
but a tendency, and the tendency sometimes con- 
tradicts itself. Law means invariable sequence, tend- 
ency means general gravitation in a given direction. 
The one is science, the other is probability. One is of 
the nature of ascertainable cause and effect, the other 
is of the nature of unknown cause and effect. There is 
a disposition in some quarters to push our exact knowl- 
edge too far, in this matter of the human constitution. 
Our frame and its functions are not matters of posi- 
tive demonstrable knowledge. Pathology and medi- 
cine are not exact sciences; neither is descent or 
heredity in man or animals. There sometimes seems 
to be a terrible and cruel truth in Renan's, I think, 
saying that human-life-and-society is a steaming 
moral compost from which grow the rarest flowers, 
and the only condition of having the flowers is having 
the compost. 



LETTERS TO A SON 175 

The afflictions of human life are the perpetual 
wonder and trial of the heart. I remember distinctly 
when the impression first began to grow on my mind 
and feeling. It was during the early years of my 
experience in Fitchburg. I noticed how many came 
into the church on Sunday, in their mourning weeds. 
The selfish view of suffering and sorrow is surely an 
indication of a narrow mind and a pinched and stingy 
heart. The trials we are put to are a dark mystery, 
but they are a fact ! and I think they are ground of 
faith in the wisdom and goodness of God ; for a human 
world can be only on this condition ; and unless God 
saw good, final good to all, he could not righteously 
or mercifully sustain such a world. 

Mr. Jackson is a very superior man. I am sincerely 
grieved at his infirmity, and sometimes ask myself 
how I could bear it. But tell me how the hard and 
flinty soil matures the delicious berry, or how in the 
dark caverns of the sea there bloom the colors of the 
mother-of-pearl, and tell how the spirit of man is 
nourished, with all divine powers of life and being, 
amid the anguish of sharp adversity. We talk much 
about good circumstances, but Heaven only knows 
what circumstances are good. 

I am more and more pleased with what seems to be 
the felicity of your situation, morally, socially, and 
materially. You appear to have caught the spirit of 
our vocation, and day by day to be feeling its influence. 



176 HORATIO STEBBINS 

It is a good vocation, and affords great opportunities 
to live the life of a man, engaged with the finest 
objects of study, thought, and action. 

I went to hear Mrs. Norton sing last night : took 
Mrs. Ward, Kate, and Nora. She sang very finely, and 
appeared with quiet propriety. I wondered, as I sat 
and looked and heard, how a woman who had been 
through so much disappointment in her affections 
could sing so appreciatively those ballads that praise, 
and die for, human constancy. No disappointment, 
no anguish, no bitter humiliation, no dreary way of 
loneliness and neglect could cast a doubt on the great 
ideals of purity and devotion. It is a testimony to the 
survival of great and illustrious sentiments in the 
midst of earthly ruins, and of a light that beams on the 
heart, above all broken hopes. 

Your experience in writing sermons revives my own. 
Take simple themes — one thing, and stick to it, I 
would write short sermons — twenty minutes, or five 
more sometimes, is enough, and best. Your experience 
in calling interests me. I have found it best for me to 
use the mornings in the study, and the afternoons in 
pastoral duties. I never have liked calling all day. 
An average of two calls a day will carry you around 
often enough, I should think. What conduces to use- 
ful work more than anything else is to get so settled, 
with duties laid out, that one can work easily and with- 



LETTERS TO A SON 177 

# 

out worry. Then good eating and sleeping, rest before 
eating, if one is tired, and rising in the morning with 
pure taste are great accessories to pleasant work ; then 
constant communion with a poetic mind, and some 
new intelligence gained every day. The mind becomes 
happy in study then. 

You went to see Dr. Hedge! I am glad you did. 
Nothing is more common than to see the reserved 
manners of reflective men interpreted to mean hauteur 
and severity of bearing. It is a good piece of manners 
to know how to meet such men with complete self- 
possession, on the same plane of mind with themselves. 
Young persons, and persons who at any and every age 
live chiefly in the outposts of the mind and not in the 
citadel, usually think that reflective men are proud or 
unsympathizing. It is a great mistake. The difference 
is that some are always melted down and flowing; 
others, like silver, must be melted down before they 
flow. Dr. Hedge has always been a reserved man, and 
he lacks that genial ardor that gives one a pleasant 
and cordial introduction, but he has the elements of 
intellectual and moral greatness. I hope you were not 
embarrassed in his presence : but if you were, it would 
not hurt you in his estimation or in your own, or in 
mine. Many persons think I am a stern man. I sup- 
pose that I make that impression sometimes in my 
more reflective moods ; and then again, the only way 
to shake off some talking fool, rescue your own soul 



178 HORATIO STEBBINS 

i 

from the pit, is to draw into your shell and cease to 
report. 

I am sure the occasion to see and hear Mr. Brooks 
must have been helpful and instructive. A wise and 
liberal mind, open and receptive, is always ready to be 
taught from every source of truth and good. The 
individual, alone and uninstructed by the experience 
and sympathies of others, is a sterile type of human 
nature. I would like to have you tell me more defi- 
nitely the impressions you received from his presence 
and preaching. As I have told you, I have always felt 
that much of his influence is presence; not merely in 
avoirdupois, but in that fine indescribable halo of 
moral and spiritual life which belongs to all in whom 
the high truth of spiritual being is personated. 

Have you read "The Control of the Tropics" by 
Kidd, an interesting essay? He says white men can 
live there only as a diver can live under water. A 
writer in the Spectator, not in controversy, says that 
they can. Jordan says that they can live there, but 
instead of improving the people they will sink to the 
level of the natives. Science is a little "too previous" 
in the matter of races. The world hasn't been going 
long enough to determine some things. The dew is on 
the grass yet, and the sun isn't above the trees on the 
eastern mountains. 

I am quite unable to understand the turkey kind of 



LETTERS TO A SON 179 

life of the wandering here and there, and through the 
grass and bushes, leaving the children, now the other 
side of the fence, and now in the ditch. 

I see so many broken-winged birds, so many whose 
affairs are piled in a heap of ruin, and some who have 
lost what little moral substance they ever had, that I 
am often pained for the sorrows of the world, and 
refuge is found only in vigilant duty and in the 
consciousness of the upright mind. When we reflect 
that much of the trouble of men is brought on by 
themselves, we are impressed with the conviction that 
little can be done without a modification of character, 
or recharging of the will. My error, I think, has been 
that I am too impressible and given to pity, when a 
wise severity would have been more true. To be truly 
wise and kind is a union of sentiment and truth which 
we may look for only in the Almighty. 

(After hearing General Booth.) It is a platitude to 
say "They will do much good " ; but it is in a field and 
by methods quite off my plane. I can give it only 
that general moral sympathy which I feel toward 
f etichism and all that sensuous form of religion which 
characterizes the undeveloped man. The common 
mind must have religion painted in tawdry colors. 
I am only glad there is some one to paint it. 



The flash of war streams up from beyond the hori- 



i8o HORATIO STEBBINS 



zon [1898] and gives a lurid gleam across the sky. I 
feel deeply its import and possible result. In such a 
time one wants to have a clear idea, at least to himself, 
of the cause and purpose of a conflict in some respects 
new to us, and perhaps destined to modify the rela- 
tions of the nations of the world. The cause of the war 
is the inefficiency and cruelty displayed by an ancient 
monarchy in the government of the colony of Cuba, 
near our shores. All just sentiments demand that 
such ww-government with its attendant miseries should 
cease. Christendom agrees in that, whatever the allied 
powers of Europe through jealousy of one another 
failed to do in Armenia. It is becoming in a great 
nation to put an end to what seems to be ceaseless 
bloodshed and misrule. This is our cause, as I under- 
stand it. There are many blunders in diplomacy, and 
statesmen do not believe one another, and war carries 
with it all the motives of human action, mendacity, 
selfishness, ambition, honor, patriotism, and liberty. 
But mixed with all these passions and principles there 
is an idea of justice and right, that gives import and 
meaning to war, and it has an awful morality amid all 
its crimes and suffering. 

Whatever our Government has failed to do through 
diplomacy is a part of diplomacy itself, its fraud, cun- 
ning, duplicity, and passionate will. I see no reason to 
believe that war would have been averted if diplomacy 
had been continued. A decaying monarchy lay across 
the path of justice and right ; collision was inevitable 



LETTERS TO A SON 181 

unless the world ceased to move. We are at war with 
Spain ! A great war estimated by dimension or idea, 
time or consequence. 

What will be the result? No man knows. The 
contingencies are very great. Our business is to say, 
and compel, that a government so weak that it can be 
only cruel shall let go. If we say and do that, our duty 
is done, and all honorable sentiments give applause. 
Will Cuba have peace then ? Perhaps not, but she will 
be working out her own problem, and will have as 
good as she is able and worthy to have, with no med- 
dling from abroad. 

But I am no prophet, and it is not becoming in any 
man to assume to understand the future. I can con- 
ceive contingencies that may carry the war into for- 
eign lands, and involve the Anglo-Saxon race, and 
arraign the European civilization at the bar of modern 
judgment, but it is just as easy to conceive that it will 
not be so. Wise men and fools alike prophesied that 
our Civil War would be over in ninety days. It lasted 
four years, and culminated in an act of righteous 
humanity of which they never dreamed. That war 
ended in humanity. This war begins in humanity. 
Maybe this war will illustrate as truly as that how 
little men know to what a principle, the only eternal 
thing on earth, will lead. Anyhow, I hope for swift 
and heavy blows, quickly to bring the endu 

War has many issues and outcomes that were not 
contemplated or indicated in the original pronuncia- 



1 82 HORATIO STEBBINS 



mento, and a complete change of mind may come over 
a nation as war advances, developing new conditions 
and raising new questions. I do not know that I have 
an opinion satisfactory even to myself, in regard to a 
policy that may lead to inderinite territorial aggran- 
dizement, but the views of those who rest on traditional 
immemorial usage, the Constitution, George Washing- 
ton, do not convince me. The growth of our country, 
the expansion of its power, the extinction of slavery, 
have all come in spite of the rigid frame of the Con- 
stitution, according to spirit, elasticity, and spring 
that recasts the setting and framework of nations and 
the world. The idea of nations remaining as they are, 
with fixed boundaries and limited domain, is contrary 
to all experience of history or human progress. There 
is a self-correcting process in the very constitution of 
nature informed with living power. I will not agree in 
this or that about the present war, but express my 
conviction that it will put us in new and more vital 
relations with nations, readjust the distribution of the 
world. 

September 7, 1898 
This is very much such a morning as that of Sep- 
tember 7, 1864, when we came into the harbor through 
a gray mist that obscured the town. The period be- 
tween then and now is a considerable portion of a 
man's life, and gives opportunity for retrospect and 
prospect. My experiences have been as satisfactory, 



LETTERS TO A SON 183 

perhaps, as the experience of men commonly is any- 
where. I have, on the whole, led a life of self-respecting 
independence, and rendered some honorable service. 
I am not anxious for the future, and have no desire for 
posthumous eulogy ; while to be beloved and remem- 
bered by those who are nearest me is my humble but 
divine ambition. I confess, with gratitude, that the 
longer I live, the more deeply am I impressed by the 
grandeur of the world scene, and the more ardently 
do I contemplate the fortune and destiny of Human- 
ity. While human nature is ever the same, there are 
great eras of human progress, when man seems more 
receptive of the Divine Spirit and the world gets a 
fresh impulse from on high, attesting that man is 
never deserted by the Maker, and that immortality 
alone is the theater on which the Eternal Mind can 
work out the infinite designs of good. 

August 1, 1899 

Horatio has just come in to bid me good-morning ! 
His heart is as strong as the sun, and his mind as clear 
as the sky. His going awakes the sentiments I felt 
when you left me for Cambridge, when every pain was 
soothed by gratitude. What you say about Williams 
[Theodore C] gives me great pleasure. He is a man, 
a scholar, and a gentleman, and his spiritual mind is 
not infested with the owls and bats that flutter in the 
dark of much believing. Give him and Mrs. Williams 
my salutations, when you see them, and tell them that 



1 84 HORATIO STEBBINS 

I distinguish them from others by a kind of cheerful 
glory around their heads. 

As for myself, I am about as well, I suppose, as I 
can expect to be, and, while my strength is dimin- 
ished, I enjoy much and feel many sources of wisdom, 
gratitude, and love, of which your mind and heart 
are perennial fountains. 



CHAPTER IX 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 

[Dr. Stebbins habitually made use of clear-cut, epi- 
grammatic sayings, which condensed a philosophy 
into a sentence. The present chapter includes some of 
these characteristic condensed statements, as well as a 
few extracts from addresses or sermons.] 

LIFE 

The guides of life are not demonstrations, but opin- 
ions, judgments, probabilities, faith. 

True greatness always and everywhere is a great spirit, 
and the power that moves a great spirit is the heart. 

The exercise of generous and unselfish affections is the 
only true happiness on earth or in heaven. 

We want to feel and know, not how God made the 
world or why he made it, but that our hearts, our 
consciences, our imaginations are in sympathy with 
his will and love. 

Virtue is positive ; vice is negative. We often miss the 
attainment of real excellence, because we think it con- 
sists simply in getting away from our sins. 

The eternal reason for doing right is because it is right ; 
any other reason, such as getting hurt or going to hell, 



1 86 HORATIO STEBBINS 



is a sneaking apology, and has no relation to morality, 
pure and true. 

There is no heresy but the heresy of not believing in 
duty, virtue, excellence, and love. These alone are 
universal as human nature and belong to every human 
being as an endowment from heaven, and have the 
same native glow in all fashions of the tribes of the 
world. 

We cannot think of the enormous trial which is 
undergone in the world by vast multitudes, without 
the thought of some sublime fruit to come of it some 
day. It may not emerge from the struggle of bare 
endurance here, but has not the seed been sown? 

I would live as though there were no such thing in this 
world as death for me or for others. I would live with 
my thoughts amid things that endure; in work and 
duty and love, until death itself is consumed in life, 
the resurrection going on day by day, the mortal 
putting on immortality. 

The eternal foundations are sentiments : Honor, 
Shame, Patriotism, Reverence, Love of Beauty, Jus- 
tice, Goodness, Conscience. These have no time or 
season, and suffer no mutations of uncertainty or 
doubt. 

It has been said that we dig our graves in our youth ; 
but a sadder thing is a low-toned dull maturity that 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 187 

has no resurrection power, and holds to life from mere 
animal instincts. The only thing that can help us is a 
new resolve by which the breath of heaven may fill 
our sails, and bring us out of the wretched doldrums of 
a soul delayed in the senses, into the wide sea and free 
winds of a new life. If we can carry our self-reproach, 
accepting willingly its burden, knowing that we are 
not estranged from the love and forgiveness of God, 
there is great hope for us. 

All our past that is precious must be brought into the 
present as living force, and all our past that is mistake, 
or folly, or sin, must be left behind. We are here — 
our work is here — our duty is here — our being is 
here — and here is the kingdom of God. Don't look 
back after it ; forward is the course ! 

While we do all in our power to remove temptation 
from the weak, we should always teach, and nail the 
truth on every height of moral glory, that temptation 
is not only an opportunity to vice, but also an oppor- 
tunity to virtue. 

As the glad light of day comes invariably with the 
returning sun, so peace and joy and the divine love 
and benediction always come with our return to truth 
and duty, however far we may have wandered from it. 

Wherever on the earth stand the monuments of human 
struggle, self-sacrifice, and devotion, there it is good for 
the living, as they move forward in ever-flowing pro- 



1 88 HORATIO STEBBINS 



cession of generations, to pause in their march and pay 
venerating respect, gratitude, and admiration. 

God forbid that I should decry learning, refinement, 
intellectual culture, in any form in which these adorn 
human life with beauty, luxury, and power ; but these 
are not supreme, and they are not the climax of indi- 
vidual greatness, or of the nation's glory. What we 
want as individuals, what society wants, is not so 
much increased intellectual force as awakened moral 
sensibility. 

THE USES OF LIFE 

To him who looks upon the world aright, life is desir- 
able, if only for discipline. When Job was surrounded 
by afflictions of the severest kind, he exclaimed : 
"I would not live alway" ; but modern writers have 
exclaimed, "I ask not to stay, " as if the duties of life 
were a loathsome task which to be discharged from 
would be " unspeakable gain." What Christian would 
not, with the ancient patriarch, exclaim, "I would 
not live alway" ; yet who would say, "I ask not to 
stay " ? I would ask to stay. I would live a long life ; 
I would live for virtuous discipline, to do good, to 
alleviate suffering humanity, to raise the immortal 
mind by communion with the truth and with God ; to 
practice the principles of love and good- will which the 
Saviour of men taught ; to contemplate the character 
of God in his works ; to enjoy communion with friends, 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 189 

and to visit the graves of those whose memory and 
parting blessings are yet fresh in the mind. I would 
hear the thunder as it rolls through the heavens as the 
voice of God, and behold the gathering cloud as it 
rises in terrific grandeur, the chariot of the Almighty. 
I would see the mighty forest tree bend with graceful 
meekness before the tempest, and when the storm is 
over see it stand firm and towering upwards, and learn 
the lesson from it, that virtue, though meek, is firm 
and unrelenting. I would hear the tiny shout of the 
little child, as he runs to meet his father returning 
from the toils of the day. I would see him wrapt in 
sweet slumbers, with the smile playing on his lips. 
In the mountain waterfall, in the delicate lily which 
blooms in the vale, and in the rippling rill that mur- 
murs by the cottage of content with music sweeter 
far than that of the fair daughters of Italy, in the fly- 
ing cloud, I would learn a lesson of life. In all these I 
would learn the character of God. Are these not worth 
living for ? They are worth a lifetime, however check- 
ered that life may be with temptation and evil ; and 
in the proportion by which we overcome wrong, our 
lives will be valuable. I would live long for this. The 
joys of heaven are worth a lifetime of preparation, and 
he who disciplines most will be the best prepared for 
that enjoyment. I would live then until the silvery 
locks of virtuous old age should be an emblem of 
fitness for the society of heaven. To him who has 
spent a life like this, the tomb is stripped of its terrors ; 



1 9 o HORATIO STEBBINS 

the chills of death are as the smiles of God's counte- 
nance. 

My time has come. It is best that I should go. I have 
loved you all ; love me still. Remember me with gentle 
sorrow and cheerful gratitude. We have loved one 
another, and how happy have we been in that love. 
What may we not expect from the infinite love? 

AGE 

Age has a life, a plan of thought and feeling, rather 
than a field of action. It is divided between remem- 
brance and hope ; experience has become transformed 
to wisdom ; and the heart of the child, the hope of the 
youth, and the strength of the man, have all and each 
contributed their finest quality to these summits of 
existence, which the light of parting day tinges with 
supernal glory. The finest quality of life is in age, 
when thought, remembrance, and hope, reflection and 
imagination, gathering up all the materials of life, 
crown our earthly experience with eternal power and 
beauty. 

IMMORTALITY 

We never consider man and his material frame identi- 
cal. Our idea of him is something superior to the body. 
The life of the body is held subject to a higher life in 
our very conception of duty. Conscience overrides the 
natural instincts, but man never completely succeeds 
on earth in doing what the spirit wills. Virtue is never 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 191 

completely realized. What a host of unused abilities 
and what feeble attainments ! Shall not another term 
and a longer date perfect the fruit which the days of 
the world are too short to ripen ? The climax of all our 
thought is that men believe in immortality, and the 
proof of it is that faith in it that realizes it. Mankind 
in all ages have had a hope of perpetual life, a fond 
expectation. Has he endowed his offspring with such a 
sentiment and expectation only that they may see 
their nature at last a lie ? Is this holy and triumphant 
suggestion of our nature false? Impeach not the 
Author of our frame by affirming that he has put a fact 
or a faculty into our being which has no corresponding 
truth. Amid much weakness, confusion, and tears, 
beneath these great persuasions of our being, man's 
spirit still affirms that the grief of unsatisfied desire 
is his grandeur, and discontent with the limitations of 
the present is a promise of immortality. I know of no 
testimonies, presumptions, evidences, in the whole 
range of man's moral experience and history, equal 
to those which proclaim his immortality. 

I trust that every one who believes in immortality, 
believes that he will meet again with those who have 
been most dear to him on earth. I have sometimes felt 
that I would not make another friend, if all that I 
could enjoy of him were confined to this earth. I need, 
in this susceptibility to friendship, in this power and 
tendency to multiply the bonds of spiritual kindred 



192 HORATIO STEBBINS 

and affinity, the assurance that we are laying up 
treasures for our heavenly life, providing friends that 
shall be ours forever. Let us feel, then, that we lose 
nothing and risk nothing by our friendships that 
sometimes seem brief and fruitless; and when the 
thought of some dear friend, long unseen, and perhaps 
never to be seen again on earth, comes over us with 
almost painful vividness, let it be as a gentle wind 
upon the harp of prophecy, let memory merge in hope, 
and let our minds and hearts and imaginations turn 
for their satisfaction to that dwelling-place of God 
where within 

Bright gates inscribed, no more to part, 

Soul springs to soul, and heart unites to heart. 

HEAVEN 

Heaven cannot possibly be anything to us except as 
the culminating and idealizing of what we honestly 
care most for here, and hell cannot possibly be any- 
thing to us except the culminating and idealizing 
of what we dread and hate. Here reason and faith, 
always hand in hand, unite in a purely moral and 
spiritual conception of the world to come. 

LOVE 

The essential, elementary, fundamental item of faith 
is the insight and conviction that this love, that is from 
God, and is the divine inspiration of our souls, is the 
same as that ceaseless growth of good that shall van- 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 193 

quish and subdue the evil that is in the world. This 
was that vision of Jesus that outstrips science, and 
sees truth in eternal light as it is in God, and lovers 
of humanity, teachers, philanthropists, philosophers, 
may expect the realization of their hopes and their 
faith from the increase of this love alone. 

Social science is good by pointing out measures and 
methods by which love may work, but all true and 
living reform springs from a radical and substantial 
growth of human nature in moral life ; that is, from an 
increase of love. 

If man loved man, as God loves the world, what 
wrongs would be abolished, what selfishness and sin 
would be extinguished, what corporate and individual 
wickedness would be dissipated, what clouds of war 
would be swept from the heavens, and what graces 
and charities, and lovely affections without pedantry 
or calculation would readjust the politics of the earth 
and change the climates of the world ! 

HATRED 

Hatred of evil is no measure or statement of excel- 
lence and never can be. Love of good is, and ever 
shall be. 

Doubtless there are things to be hated. But hatred of 
anything is no positive good, but a mere negative 
quality, and square leagues of it could never make a 
garden-plot where one flower could grow. 



i 9 4 HORATIO STEBBINS 

To hate evil, to see imperfection without idea of the 
perfect whole, means nothing but one's own imper- 
fection, and testifies to a degraded will rather than to 
a pure affection. 

In respect of the world and the part we act in it, we do 
most good when we pursue the good and let the evil 
alone. That is, the most efficient method of abohshing 
any evil is to overcome it with good. We hate evil 
more than we love good. This is why we rarely appre- 
ciate things we do not like. 

HONOR 

True honor is the conscious rectitude of the soul, in 
harmony with God and itself. It is a law of its own 
beyond laws — incarnate rectitude, the ideal morality. 
It is more and greater than honesty, as faithfulness is 
greater than duty ; as faithfulness overflows duty, so 
honor overflows honesty. This is the meaning and 
spirit of it as I understand it now ; as it has come down 
to us through ages of changing, increasing morality. 

Honor ! The glory of the mind, the glory of God ! It 
is a world splendor, a divine glory, a manhood great- 
ness ! It illumines the earth. It shines through his- 
tory, and men and nations behold it, the terrible 
beauty of God ! 

SELF-REPROACH 

There must be no uneasy self-reproach for what has 
taken place, no backward-looking as if we could have 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 195 

shunned this or that under which we are suffering. 
True, there is hardly any event in the Divine Provi- 
dence in which there is not a commingling of human 
agency, and there is often a sharp and painful thought, 
"Had I only done otherwise all this might not have 
been." The only question is, Had you right purposes? 
Did you do the best you knew? If not, then penitence 
and contrition become you before submission, and 
you shall bear bravely what you suffer as the adequate, 
kind, severe, yet healing retribution of wrong-doing. 
But if your conscience is clear, if what you regret came 
by no fault of your own, then it is yours trustfully to 
submit, and joyfully to hope. True, had you known 
what you now know, you would have done differently ; 
but you did not know. You could not have known. 
Yours is not the gift of prophecy. Had you this gift, 
it would indeed seem a powerful protection, but it 
would prevent too much. It would shut out the very 
dews and rains and sun and wind of this great experi- 
ence of earthly frailty and uncertainty. 9 

INTELLECTUAL HONESTY 

There are laws of thought: and reasoned truth, that 
knows no fortuitous luck and no blind gropings of 
chance and passion, is the only worthy achievement of 
the mind. Intellectual development is not merely an 
individual development, but a common sense of truth 
and right reason in the common mind. It is the in- 
crease of order, law, causes, and consequence in the 



196 HORATIO STEBBINS 

mind of an age. Freedom of thought has no existence, 
except when based on intellectual development, such 
as this. On any other grounds free thought is in the 
intellectual world what free love is in the sensual world. 
Without the rectitude of the intellect, thinking is 
itself a vagary, and truth is a caprice of self-will. To 
be intellectually honest is the last accomplishment of a 
mind that moves without passion or prejudice in the 
happy rhythm of truth, simply seeking to know what 
is. Intellectual honesty is much more rare than moral 
honesty. 

PROPERTY 

Property is a great ethic and spiritual education of 
man. It is a provision of the Maker for our welfare. 
It is not your own in the sense of an irresponsible sel- 
fishness. It is an opportunity, and God will call you to 
account for it. When ownership shall not merely ask, 
"Is it not lawful for me to do as I will with mine 
own?" but will search for wisdom and truth and good- 
ness to guide and transform selfishness to moral glory, 
then man will dwell with man as with a brother, and 
free political institutions shall not be defaced by the 
hideous contrasts of social condition. 

EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE 

Religion rests on the certainty of principle. There is 
no experiment in it ; there is no reason for any sus- 
picion that it will not work well. It is a plain, estab- 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 197 

lished, eternal thing. It is not found out or formed out 
by experiment, but by experience. It is human excel- 
lence. It is good everywhere. It is not dependent on 
locality, or climate, or season of the year. A man runs 
no more risk in living under its law than in breathing 
the air or loving his child. It is good for his mind and 
heart, as the blood is for his body. It is not a medicine : 
it is health itself. It is simple, plain goodness. There 
is no man to whom it would not be good to improve 
his temper, purify his feeling and conscience, and give 
generous and cheerful hopes. There is no man whom 
it will not improve and bless, and help to do or bear 
whatever may be appointed to him in human lot. 
There is no experiment here, but the experience of man 
is the guarantee against all venture or risk. The claim 
of religion upon us is not that it asks us to try an ex- 
periment, but to enter upon the experience of eternal 
verity. 

BEING 

The reason for your being is that you are a being ; and 
the end and purpose of it are that you may be more 
and more and more what you are, even unto the glory 
that is God's glory. 

Those that have the purest joy know that happiness is 
not the end of being, and comes not from seeking or 
following, but flows from the glad heights of a soul 
that in itself is blessed. 



198 HORATIO STEBBINS 

0 experience ! costly jewel ! indefinable substance ! 
mysterious thing ! extract of existence ! sum of life's 
toils, and aroma of life's agonies ! compound of earth 
and heaven ! Experience ! Man's thought, hope, feel- 
ing, joy, and pain distilled through the sands of God's 
wisdom. 

My own consciousness of untrained faculties and unde- 
veloped powers is so vivid, and what I am is so feeble 
compared with what I might have been, that not only 
my life, but my being seems sometimes a failure. Yet 

1 am not moping or melancholy. Neither am I weep- 
ing over an unretrieved past. My being and my doing 
go forward into the great future where I trust more 
abundant life will find more abundant calling. 

Not having or doing is our chief attainment. Being is 
our great possession. This is the crowning expression 
of human life. 

Aspire, and you shall rise. Do your first duty, and the 
next will appear, and your will and your deed shall be 
one. 

No man who withholds himself from active and sym- 
pathizing association with the poor can keep the foun- 
tains of his own nature flowing with that generous 
moral health that belongs to a good and wise heart. 

To live in dreams or visions is sickly. To go into a 
cloister and meditate on eternity is morbid. To lose 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 199 



our interest in the present world in thinking about 
another is morbid. The highest condition is that in 
which with all hearty energy one lives in the present 
with his life drawn from the past and the future. 

It is not longer time that we want so much as the 
capacious soul to flow through the little we have. 

ON OVERCOMING 

If anything in nature is clearly intended, it is that 
arrangement of our moral constitution by which it is 
so hard to be anything, so hard to keep a steady direc- 
tion upward of all our powers. Amid what continuing 
besetting difficulties do we domesticate a virtue, so 
that it will stay with us as a gentle habit ! How many 
times, over and over, must it be acted through pure 
power of will. Those genialities which come without 
this labor give little strength of character. The char- 
acter which has overcome the most obstacles in its 
formation is the best and strongest, and what pro- 
found respect do we feel toward one who has started 
with a fund of inborn ungenial qualities and by little 
and little brought in sunshine and joy! Are these 
labors to dishearten men, or is it not through them 
that men feel the majesty of virtue and the greatness 
of obligation ? How does it happen that the more we 
overcome, the more we love the fight? Why does 
patient, quiet acceptance of any difficulty, though it 
pillows us upon a stone, always send us divine assur- 



2oo HORATIO STEBBINS 



ance and strength? So wondrous is the education of 
life, so vast the discipline of the soul ! 

GOD 

The most sublime conception of which the human 
mind is capable is that of an infinite personality whose 
will pervades the universe; the source of law that 
moves in consentaneous procession in all realms, from 
cause to effect ; the source of power that unfolds the 
petals of a rose, and draws back the earth from its 
aphelion ; the source of love that warms the heart of a 
child, and kindles the flame of angelic aspiration. The 
idea transcends all others, and is an apprehension, not 
a comprehension; an insight of pure reason, not a 
conclusion of the logical understanding. 

Say what we will, let theology do its best, and let 
science have full scope, and let all the evidence be 
brought into line in bristling array, yet nothing so 
persuades us of the great realities of moral and spirit- 
ual being as the man in whom God is manifest, the 
type of our human nature at its best, and the faith 
that God in humanity is the sublime revelation of 
himself. 

To be brought to God's judgment is to be brought to 
a discernment of the truth in regard to ourselves. 

There is a vast over-balance of mercy over wrath. Let 
us trust that. Let us think nobly, triumphantly, of 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 201 



God, and be sure that trust in a righteous God means 
the ultimate triumph of good over evil. 

The conviction, the feeling, the faith, whatever you 
call it, that however knowingly men may look upon 
this world and see nothing but society — all solid 
mass — yet to God the world is all individual ; that 
conviction alone can sustain our hope, and plume our 
wings to fly lightly across the moral abysses of the 
world. 

Let us think nobly, triumphantly of God : and be sure 
that trust in a righteous God means the ultimate 
triumph of good over evil. 

The tenderest men of all are the severest with them- 
selves. They know how to pity who know how to 
repent. 

BELIEF 

The beliefs which Jesus taught are of the same nature 
and kind as those which good men have in one another. 
The teachings of Jesus were not to make propositions, 
but to bring men into communion with God. 

Belief is not faith, and no amount of belief is faith. 
Faith is a personal, inward knowledge that we are 
spiritual beings, that a divine life belongs to us as the 
vocation of our nature, and that we are in relation 
with other spiritual beings, our fellow-man and with 
God, the source of all being. Faith does not consist in 



202 HORATIO STEBBINS 

a belief in spiritual existence, neither is it to be con- 
founded with the acceptance of any statement in 
words. It is not assent to propositions. It is the sense 
of a living and supreme authority in the man of the 
heart. It is a state of spiritual health and vitality of 
soul that discerns the living powers of spiritual being 
and responds to their signals. 

Faith in its true and pure sense is not toward things or 
propositions of the understanding, but toward spirit- 
ual beings and a spiritual order above the dark powers 
that confront and contradict us here. Belief may be a 
purely intellectual state touching no active emotion ; 
but faith worketh by love. It is of the very essence of 
it that it lives and moves and has its being, in, and for, 
and toward those in whom its trust is, its objects of 
worship, its models of duty, its springs of satisfaction, 
the living God, and the living imprint of God in 
humanity. 

It seems to me that if a man would be square with 
himself, square with the world and square with God, 
he must rest in some great truths, stated in large, free, 
and indefinite form. There are some things of our most 
profound conviction which, if we strive to give them 
more definite conception, either vanish or involve us 
in confusion. The moment that religion is fixed in 
dogma, that moment the dogma begins to dissolve. 
Humanity and divinity are of the same quality and 
nature, as father and son. Jesus is the historic witness 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 1203 

of the height to which human nature has attained, and 
the eternal figure toward which the church of God, or 
human society, is to grow, "till we all come into a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ." 

To believe is to realize the invisible. To believe is to 
see with the soul, as nature sees with the body. To 
believe is to realize God as the source of our being and 
all spiritual illumination, and the goal of destiny. To 
believe is to discern and live in a world above and 
beyond and within this world, whose least interests 
are more important than this world's greatest, whose 
one day is as a thousand years to the whole duration 
of the earth. To believe is to see what humanity did 
become in Jesus of Nazareth, and to see in him, in 
whom God's glory was so manifest, the possibility of 
one's self, and of his fellow-man. It is to believe that 
humanity, through that glory that cometh from the 
only God, may become thoroughly divine. Believing 
is to see and feel that discipline teaching education, 
that mystery that we call moral influence, is as real to 
man as the beams of the sun or the revolving earth. 
Believing is to discern, by the insight of the soul, that a 
fine and pure conscience, reflecting in terribleness and 
beauty the distinction of right and wrong, is as real as 
the mountains in the horizon or the sea rolling in the 
Almighty's hand ! Believing is to see, with the eye 
behind the eye, that the mind of a child, with all its 



204 HORATIO STEBBINS 

tender buds of thought and feeling and imagination, is 
as real as a bank-account, a wide area of land, or the 
choicest breeds of cattle : and is as much superior to 
them as the stars of heaven are to a beggar's staff ! 
Believing is to see that man's heart, and woman's love, 
and childhood beauty reflect a light that is not on 
land or sea : the light that is the glory that cometh 
from the only God ! 

THE CHURCH 

The office of the Christian Church, as I understand it, 
is to stimulate personal character and life to moral and 
spiritual excellence, and to cherish those revering sen- 
timents toward God in which all excellence at last has 
its root. It is not primarily to engage the soul in the 
work of its own salvation, but to engage it rather in a 
free, abounding human life. Progressive apprehension 
of spiritual truth, the nature of man, duty, and destiny, 
is the keynote of human welfare. To have an idea of 
the meaning of this world and to respect it, to study 
its wants and apply the principles of righteousness and 
human charity to life and experience, and to find the 
kingdom of heaven in the helpful and hopeful condi- 
tions of earthly existence, in short, to befriend what- 
ever is human, this is the office of a Christian Church. 
It is not the office of the church to reflect public opin- 
ion, like the press, but to show the pattern forever in 
the mount, and that moral and spiritual ideals are the 
glory of the world. 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 205 

If the church survives, it will be because she is inspired 
and guided by the spirit of truth that will lead her to 
all truth ; and all truth is unity, not of opinion, but of 
heart and will. 

THE CREEDS 

The truth is that this whole system of doctrine mis- 
conceives the moral order of the world. To call belief 
in it faith is as great a blunder as to call bookkeeping 
astronomy. Faith is not a belief at all expressed in 
intellectual form ; it is a free motion of man's moral 
nature in trust and love toward God, the Father of all ; 
and to confound it with dogmatic statements of any 
sort is a confusion of thought and idea. The kind of 
celestial certainty with which the creed speaks is 
intellectual impudence, as compared with those moral 
and spiritual sentiments which are the very heart of 
religion. 

The world is in the making, and its ruins and disap- 
pointments and defeats are not a relapse from a former 
glory, but a part of that " process of the suns" which is 
a method of almighty wisdom and love. This fronts us 
with God, our ideal is before us, and destiny is a glory 
to be won in the future, and not a lost paradise to be 
retrieved from the past. 

CHRISTIANITY 

It is the purpose of Christianity to purify and conse- 
crate human nature. 



2o6 HORATIO STEBBINS 



Christianity is as old as creation. Its truth is in human 
nature, supremely expressed in selected souls, among 
whom Jesus is chief. He voices human nature in clear 
accents of truth and love, snatches of a celestial song, 
the glories and harmonies of a moral world. In this 
transcendent expression of the truth that is universal 
as man, he has purified the hearts of men, changed 
their thoughts of God, and given a moral impulse to 
speed the race on toward its ultimate goal, through 
regions where old truths take new shapes, and new 
circumstances call for new actions. This is the eternal 
Gospel, in the heart of God when he laid the founda- 
tions of the world, and in the heart of man when God 
made him a living soul. 

Christianity, a revised edition of human nature, takes 
the world as it finds it, as it is and not as it ought to be, 
and proposes, through eternal principles of righteous- 
ness and truth, to refine, exalt, and bless human-kind. 
This, in its fullest and most comprehensive scope, is 
what we mean by human progress, or, in that com- 
pletest phrase that ever fell from lips touched with 
heavenly fire, the kingdom of God. 

Christianity, as it exists in the common opinion and 
life of Christendom, is, doubtless, a religion, but as it 
was in the mind, heart, and life of Jesus, it is Religion. 
The universal and human quality is the glory of it, and 
it is that which raises Jesus above the level of the mere 
teacher and makes him the practical and ideal deliverer 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 207 

of the world. If we have this conception of him and 
his truth, we shall go to him for the impulse, and 
power, and elevation of human life, rather than to 
trace the lines of a religious system. The most pro- 
found and authoritative account of his purpose and 
aim is in his own words: "I am come that they 
may have life, and may have it abundantly." This 
is Resurrection: an enlarged capacity of moral and 
spiritual life ; as it is also the test of any genuine like- 
ness to him. This test would bisect the sects, exclude 
many stout believers, give heretics a place in the 
eternal kingdom, and make Christianity as wide as the 
world. Then we shall be able to reconcile intellectual 
difficulties by acknowledging the oneness of all excel- 
lence and the oneness of the religious life. 

RELIGION 

Religion is the recognition of the divinity in all things 
and creatures, animate and inanimate, and of the 
relations of the personal soul to the personal God. 

Religion assures us with tender and entreating voice 
that God is ever near, doing all that wisdom and love 
can do, within the limits of our nature and circum- 
stances, to lift us out of our difficulties, to repair our 
misfortunes, to console our griefs, and to make up in 
the most tender manner for our sorrows and struggles. 

Religion is not a profession ; it is in human nature and 
life, the law and love of our being, as gravitation is in 



2o8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



earth and star, and as light goes forth upon land and 
sea. We have only to lay hold upon that law and love 
within, and our being becomes real to us. We are 
satisfied that, though life has many illusions, life 
itself is no deception, that we are spiritual beings of 
kindred nature with God, and that, if these great 
sentiments sway our hearts, illume our reasons, and 
inspire our action, we have, by the grace of God, 
vested rights and blessings in immortality. 

The idea that there can ever be any unity of religion, 
save in that unity of variety in which every individual 
is sacred in his experiences before God, is fantastic. 
No two human experiences can be alike, and, though 
the world seems to a finite mind all solid, to an infinite 
mind it is all personal, and we must have done with 
dogma as a test of character or thought, and accept 
a reverent heart and upright mind as the final test and 
last word. 

Finite beings like ourselves must come sometime, 
somewhere, to something they do not know, and 
religion offers the most reasonable satisfaction in the 
thought that what finite beings cannot fathom is not 
necessarily unfathomable. Religion spans the chasm 
between the finite and the infinite by the method of 
trust and love in and for a being of intelligence and 
goodness above our own. Reason justifies our confi- 
dence, and faith makes an easy flight across the abyss. 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 209 

As science suggests will, so religion suggests love. 

The primal interest of religion is with the individual, 
through the inspiring power of personality. It is for- 
ever the "fifty righteous in the city" that saves the 
city. Let all secular movements go on, to relieve the 
stress of circumstances; the real source of energy is 
found in personal character, in the actual excellence 
and virtue that radiate from high and pure lives. No 
more vague and senseless notion ever possessed an 
honest but ignorant mind than the notion that the 
machinery of things will do the world's noblest work. 
All excellence, all renovating powers are finally vested 
in persons, and there can be nothing in a nation or a 
state, or a city, however exalted its aims, or however 
perfectly organized, which is not in the persons com- 
posing the city, the state, or the nation. An ultimate 
standard of worth is an ideal of personal worth. All 
our inspirations, all our visions of eternal beauty are 
visions, remembered glances of persons, or some in- 
effable glory of Him, all good. To speak of any prog- 
ress or improvement or development of a nation, or 
society, or mankind, except as relative to some greater 
worth of persons, is to use words without meaning. 

This moral and spiritual fact is the basis of religion, 
and of institutions for worship, prayer, and teaching. 
Man's nature overlaps this outward scenery of life 
and experience, and there are capacities in the human 
spirit not realizable in any conditions that we can 



2io HORATIO STEBBINS 



conceive on earth. Our faith in that Infinite Person, 
like ourselves, though infinitely above us, is justified 
by gleams of suggestion that a life, lived here under 
conditions of limitation that thwart its full develop- 
ment, shall be continued in a society where the com- 
plete measure of our capacities shall be attained. 

To this end is religion and its institutions — to set 
in operation moral agencies, not through the imper- 
sonal machinery of society, but by the presence and 
contact of good men and good women in the city, the 
state, or the nation. To this end every true teacher 
and preacher of religion is born, and to this end he 
comes into the world : to be the interpreter of human 
life in its sublime relations and terrible glories. This 
is my thought, my view, my conviction. 

THE LIBERAL 

The liberal in religion has a glimpse of universality, 
and as the climates of the world enfold the earth and 
sea, so the spirit of God enfolds the world of man. 
There is no infallibility for man. He is guided by 
opinions, judgments, probabilities, faith, hope, and 
love, great, general, all-comprehensive truth which, 
if you would define too accurately or appreciate too 
exclusively, vanishes and spurns the thrall. I rest 
in those great general beliefs, opinions, and ideas of 
God, man, eternal righteousness, and human destiny 
that give sublimity, grandeur, and hope to human 
life. 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 211 



Justified by his own moral being and spiritual con- 
sciousness as the interpreter of life in the light of 
religion, he must move fearlessly on that shadowy 
twilight border-ground between matter and mind, 
and stand in the verge of the abyss between law and 
will, force and person, which science cannot bridge, 
keeping open communication between the human and 
the divine, confident that when the me of conscious 
moral being and the not-me of things meet as sheeted 
ghosts, and sword cuts sword in viewless air, no 
Damascus blade of polished physical fact can ever win. 

The consummate spiritual man conceives the human 
world as no accomplished fact or concluded tragedy, 
but as the field of divine operation, where the ever- 
working, inspiring God prefigures in human souls on 
earth the glory and power of that life and society 
where men shall receive more abundant measures of 
God's eternal spirit. All the activities of life sooner or 
later follow the fortunes of the mind. The friend and 
teacher of men must have some insight into the 
supreme motives of human nature and of those powers 
of reason, imagination, and faith that cannot rest in 
the known, but stream into the unknown as the early 
day-beams stream into the darkness of the night. He 
must interpret human life in the light of these. He 
must voice them in his own personality, and in the 
personality of Jesus of Nazareth, as the supreme figure 
and expression of human nature in its divine relations. 



2i2 HORATIO STEBBINS 



ON WAR 

While we wait this great fulfillment [the realization 
of the vision of universal peace], what is the ground 
and standing of war in the providence of the world? 
Has it a place in the progress of mankind, or any part 
in that world-system by which education of the race 
has been carried on through the graduated steps of 
an imperfect morality ? Neither the moment nor the 
propriety of the occasion permit the discussion of so 
wide and profound a theme. I shall be happy, indeed, 
if to your awakened minds I can give the seed and 
kernel of it. Mankind is divided into individuals, 
families, and nations. Each of these is a moral unit 
or whole, endowed with the powers and passions of 
humanity. On a large scale, nations make the grand 
divisions of the human world, while individuals are 
smaller parts of the greater whole. The individual is a 
moral unit, and the nation is a moral unit. Therefore, 
disputes may arise between nations and between indi- 
viduals. In the one case they are settled by law ; in 
the other case, they are settled by war. Why this 
striking contrast? Why are the misunderstandings 
and contradictions of individuals settled peacefully 
according to the intelligence and reason of the present, 
while the misunderstandings and contradictions of 
nations are settled by methods that are a thousand 
years back in a barbarous and cruel age ? 

The contrast is thus striking because there is a law 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 213 

for individuals while there is no law for nations. The 
individual submits to the opinion of society : he must 
submit, for the same power lies sleeping behind a court 
which is awake and abroad in war. No government of 
nations can thus compel the obedience of nations. 
Even if international law should rise to such a height 
of power as to become the public opinion of mankind, 
a nation that refused to consent to that opinion could 
be compelled to consent only by war, just as the law 
can be executed only by force against the individual 
who refuses to submit. So long as any nation refuses 
to act upon any other sense of justice than its own, war 
is not an accident of society, but something rooted in 
the very constitution and progress of the world. 

This is a dark fact : but it is a fact, nevertheless, and 
one that plays a conspicuous part in the history of the 
world. However we may deplore it and look forward 
heroically, in the name of reason and of God, the 
inspirer of reason, for the coming of the millennial 
age, this is the condition of man to-day. 

But this is not all despair ! The Almighty Maker 
has prepared the cloud by day and the fire by night, 
the eternal ideals that lead his people on. War, with all 
its terrible features, has its own solemn and august vir- 
tues. The idea of the soldier's life and destiny is to die 
for the good of others. He sinks into the abyss that 
the nation, with all its peaceful and happy homes, its 
teeming populations, its shining capitols of law, art, 
letters, and religion, may breathe the air and glance in 



214 HORATIO STEBBINS 

the light of heaven. He is the instrument of ideas 
above himself that bind him with supreme and subtle 
force, giving a background of moral grandeur to the 
dark perspective of grief and glory. 

There is something worse than war : it is the misery 
of having nothing worth fighting for. 

(Spoken at the Chit-Chat Club dinner, 1887.) 

UNITARIANISM 

In these declining days of a venerable form of faith, 
when many things are remembered that were once 
believed by the true and the good, "but remembered 
with a smile as belonging to the past," it has been 
asked if we Unitarians have any further duty or voca- 
tion. The question misconceives the nature of truth 
in assuming that religion is a settled fact, and not a 
moving spirit ; that now we have come to the mount of 
transfiguration and we will build three tabernacles 
and appropriate the divine glory to private use. It is 
the old weakness for concluded fact before the spirit 
of truth has come, unmindful that the ever-flowing 
fountains of religion are in the mountain fastness of 
Reason and the Moral Consciousness, and only super- 
ficial and short-breathed powers try to appropriate it 
as their own. It misconceives the idea of our time, 
inasmuch as it forgets that there is no longer any such 
thing as external authority in religion, and that the 
appeal to the inner convictions of the soul is the only 
divine credential. To say that men who have believed 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 215 

this and proclaimed this, have now no vocation, is 
simply falling back into the old rut of belief that 
religion is once more finished and we are going to have 
an easy time ; whereas religion, in view of the ever- 
increasing complexity of life, has now a harder task 
laid on it than ever before. To give spiritual help to 
men, it must be spiritual, and no longer think to win 
the soul by storming the senses, or to shirk its own 
responsibility as a teacher under cover of a textbook. 
If any man thinks that Unitarianism is to be the 
formulated faith of the future, he knows not the spirit 
that he is of : and if, in this time, when religion must 
come forth and ask no favors of the world or men, and 
seek no protection, but take its place with reason and 
divine philosophy, any man asks if Unitarianism has 
lost its vocation, surely the spirit of truth has not 
come to him. The concluded fact, the finished truth, 
still haunts him, and no glories of the advancing God. 

(National Conference, Saratoga, 1884.) 

Unitarianism is not a dogmatic form of religion, but a 
way of thinking that corresponds with reason, com- 
mon sense, and the great facts of man's experience. 
The protest that it makes against dogmatic Protes- 
tantism is of the same kind as that which Protestant- 
ism makes against dogmatic Rome. Unitarians are 
a small body among the sects of Christendom, as 
Christendom is a small body compared with the 
human race, but Unitarianism, as a way of thinking, 



2i 6 HORATIO STEBBINS 



has an influence far beyond its numbers. Poetry is 
imbued with it, literature bears it on wings of power, 
and science proclaims it. The late Dean Stanley said 
that he did not hear a sermon in America that was not 
imbued with the spirit of Channing and Emerson. 
Religious reform is the slowest of all to move, but as 
sure as day and night the Christian Religion is about 
to be placed on a basis of reasonable fact — physical, 
moral, spiritual. The appeal to ignorance and fear, 
and dread of mysterious consequences, will give place 
to appeals to honor, the sense of justice, the latent 
affection for truth and goodness, the beauty and holi- 
ness of God, and the loveliness and wisdom of Jesus. 
Religion will drop its melancholy and austere tones, 
and commend itself by its sympathy with what is 
hopeful, joyous, and trusting, and be guide, cheerer, 
and inspirer. It will recover its half-lost respect for 
literature, poetry, and art, and find genius, philosophy, 
and science its true allies. Before such powers major- 
ities are nothing. Those who think the thought and 
hope the hope of mankind hail the day-spring from on 
high and live in the morning of the world ; and man 
comes of a nobler spirit as he learns to gauge his opin- 
ions and his actions by a scale commensurate with 
his nature. The world is young, and the path of 
humanity is wet with dew. The vision is plain, that 
he who runs may read. Though it tarry, wait for it, 
because it surely will come ; it will not tarry. 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 217 



THE OFFICE AND DUTY OF A MINISTER 

The office and duty of a Minister is to unfold the 
principles of moral and spiritual truth, to awaken the 
sentiments and affections of the heart, and lift up 
those ideals that ever draw the wondering eyes to the 
mountain-tops that lie between this and a hidden 
world. Above the dust and grime of earth, above all 
wickedness, he must be in love with man and men. He 
must understand the world, yet be not of it. He must 
see the good, the beautiful, the true, as in eternal light : 

As when a painter, poring on a face, 

Divinely through all hindrance finds the man 

Behind it and so paints, his face, 

The shape and color of a mind and life, 

Lives for his children, ever at its best and fullest. 

Thus there is gladness in his heart, with something 
of the patient resignation of sorrow. He must have 
sympathy without softness, that can seize any oppor- 
tunity to give pleasure, or establish peace and comfort 
in a troubled mind, or soothe a penitent heart with 
healthy pain. The more he is a man, the more he is of 
God. At home with human experience, he often knows 
without knowing, and is wisest when not wise at all. 
He is no pietist and no professor of religion after the 
style of the professors chair, as if religion itself were a 
specialty. He is man, and, through conscience, reason, 
and imagination, illumined by studies, cherished by 
prayers, and enriched by human love, he ascends by 



12 1 8 HORATIO STEBBINS 



easy steps to heights of spiritual being, where the light 
of God forever dwells. The nature of moral and spirit- 
ual influences is silent and unseen, yet all the glory of 
man's estate is there, and the kingdom of God on 
earth and in heaven lies folded in the human heart. 

A minister, first of all, should be a man who likes this 
world, believes in it and loves it, is of the world, and 
yet above it. He should love human nature — believe 
in it and hope in it. In short, he should be thoroughly 
human in all his thought and feeling. He should have 
common sense, good learning, delight in literature, a 
reverent mind, without pietism or sentimentality, and 
that mysterious power that has never been defined, 
that we call character, which, at any rate, is nothing 
more than alliance with God. A man thus equipped is 
well furnished for some of the finest and most enduring 
influences of human life, and to such an one there is 
something in life that gives it a profound, glad, and 
solemn joy — something greater than happiness, more 
sublime than pleasure, strong as the sun, and steady 
as a star. A man who is equipped with reason, intelli- 
gence, and love, without which intelligence is only 
moonlight, observes the world from celestial heights of 
strength and light. A good man knows the world 
much better than a bad man can know it. A man's 
influence with his fellow-men depends, in the long run, 
on the powers and qualities to which he appeals ; and 
while he does not ignore tact, skill, or wisdom, his 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS a 19 

real influence that is worth anything depends on his 
appeal, in action, life, and speech, to the best there is 
in men. I take every man at his best. I would awake 
his noblest powers. I would think of him at his best, 
and I have found that, whenever you so speak or act 
in public or private toward a man, you get a response; 
for the moment, at least, he is a better man, and is 
awakened, it may be in surprise that there is some- 
thing in him of reason and love that had slept so long. 
This is idealizing the real, and showing how our human 
nature may be swept by heavenly breezes as the trees 
of the wood are moved by the wind. I have found 
that human nature in its great leading outlines is the 
same, while individuals differ as the leaves of the trees 
or the flowers of the field. Every man must take him- 
self for better or for worse, to have and to hold, to do 
the best with himself that he can. I recognize and 
feel the unknown good there is in the world, and the 
supreme summits of human excellence in individual 
hearts. I know as much of human wickedness as the 
heart can bear, and I know as much of the supreme 
heights of moral and spiritual beauty. To these heights 
I ever look and cheer my heart with celestial visions. 

ON EDUCATION 

The aim of education should be those powers of moral 
and intellectual nature which make one denizen of a 
universe founded in intelligence and truth. Man can- 
not live on equal terms with nature ; high aristocratic 



22o HORATIO STEBBINS 



blood flows in his veins, and he feels that he was born 
to good estate. As he beholds the signatures of intel- 
ligence and law in the universe around him, and feels 
the motion of kindred powers within him, a mysteri- 
ous unrest possesses him, until he moves in the realm 
of those powers and finds his home above nature in 
the kingdom of intellectual life. Education is the ac- 
knowledgment of this resplendent truth, and school 
and college and university stand as signals that man 
comes to his manhood, not as the animal comes to the 
complete development of his life, but by culture and 
receptivity. 

Education, then, is putting man in possession of his 
better powers, and in communion with humanity and 
Providence. What ought an educated man to know, 
to think, and to be ? These are the three terms of his 
existence as a man, and without these he has no proper 
life as a man. Knowing may be said to be the power 
of seizing any fact or thing, denning its boundaries and 
distinguishing it from all other things or facts ; hence a 
man does not know anything until he can define it, or, 
rather, anything that he knows he can define, and the 
common sayings, "I know but cannot tell," "I have 
the idea but cannot express it," are loose fallacies of 
speech. The prime importance of intellectual acquire- 
ment is that a man may distinguish between his knowl- 
edge and his ignorance. Inasmuch as all knowledge is 
not within his grasp, it is of first rate, even indispen- 
sable, importance, that he should have a chart of the 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 221 



unknown regions and be able to map out the terra 
incognita of the mind. 

The days of universal scholarship are gone, never to 
return. Aristotle may be supposed to have known all 
that was known in his time; but the times have 
changed. The vast incursions of science and philos- 
ophy into the world of matter and mind, the golden 
chain of literature running through all ages and fast- 
ened in the skies, are too boundless for exploration 
within the limits allotted to the life of man on earth. 
The field is so wide, of such varied beauty and vast 
wealth, that every man is compelled to some specialty 
of intellectual vocation. To wish to be a universal 
scholar at the present day is equivalent to that ambi- 
tious aspiration for universality in mechanism, whose 
defeated hopes are summed up in the old adage, "Jack 
at all trades, good for none." 

Therefore, an educated man is compelled to decide 
for himself what he will know. With us Americans 
that question is practically settled by vocation, and, 
whatever calling a man may choose as the field of his 
active powers, let him know the central things of his 
vocation to the extent to which they are known. Let 
them stand clear in his thought, in their outline and 
boundaries, distinct from everything else in heaven, on 
earth, or in the water under the earth. No man is an 
educated man who has not brought his knowing and 
discriminating powers to this tension. It not only 
makes him master in his chosen vocation, but it brings 



222 HORATIO STEBBINS 



a certain tone of mind which is test of everything, a 
kind of common sense or mother wit which the mind 
takes on when it is put in hearty rapport with truth. 
This is why the dryest studies, when vanquished to 
intelligence, bud and blossom, and memory and imagi- 
nation dwell forever. Knowing something, and know- 
ing it to the bottom, is the only condition of salvation 
from the ill- ventilated habitation of a narrow mind. 
Specializing tends to narrow thought and bigotry of 
feeling, unless it is offset by strong impressions of the 
unknown regions and refreshed by winds from afar. 
The man that knows one thing can never be superficial, 
though he must have superficial knowledge. That one 
thing holds about the same place in his intellectual life 
that backbone holds in character. The end is indwell- 
ing, salient power, which is at home on its wings. An 
educated man, then, ought to know something so 
thoroughly that its boundaries are clear in his mind as 
the rim of the firmament, and at one sweep of his eye 
to take in the limitations of his own knowledge and 
distinguish that which he knows from that which he 
does not know. Thus, while he has much superficial 
knowledge, he is not a superficial man, and while he is 
compelled to a specialty of thought and action, he will 
not be narrow-minded. 

What ought an educated man to think? I am con- 
fronted at the outset with this fact, namely, that the 
exercise of some of the greatest powers and privileges 
of humanity is a matter of ability not less than of duty 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 223 

and right. If I were to answer the question in view of 
this fact, I should reply : Every educated man should 
think as much as he can ; that is, he should be able to 
set himself free from the tumults of sect or party, from 
passion, prejudice, and public opinion, and think for 
himself according to the best lights he can find. He 
should have courage enough not to fear the results of 
such thinking ; he should believe that, whatever it 
comes to, it cannot be so hurtful as dull acquiescence 
in what is commonly accepted. To think and believe 
with majorities, to accept tradition and custom, and 
imitate society and the world, require only the com- 
mon faculties of an ape ; and the ape can do it without 
spending four years at college. 

Young men : The man who thinks at all does think- 
ing for himself ; nothing else deserves the name. The 
man who, having no affinity for the truth, mistaking 
the flame of a zealot for the eternal light, or a cloud of 
prejudice for a heavenly signal, who knows not con- 
science from self-will and goes fumbling through the 
universe to make out a foregone conclusion, is the 
standing reproach of education as he is also of human 
nature ! Whereas the man whose soul is in love with 
moral beauty ; who sees truth as a thing that hath its 
glory in itself, and cannot be touched ; who trusts him- 
self in the simplicity of meekness to his own soul and 
the God that inspires him, and feels that the angels 
have charge over him lest at any time he dash his foot 
against a stone ; who desires only to stand face to face 



i22 4 HORATIO STEBBINS 



with what is and knows that one truth cannot con- 
tradict another; who is so full of courage that he 
knows no fear, and so full of moral and intellectual 
love that fear knows not him; who thinks into the 
open space of truth around him with freedom and joy 
and reverence ; — that man is the guide and hope of 
men, elect and precious, king and priest unto God. To 
such freedom and courage, truth itself invites and 
inspires us, and we have it on the authority of him who 
is the truth, "If the truth shall make you free, you 
shall be free indeed." 

No bar the spirit world hath ever borne — 
It is thy thought is shut, thy heart is dead : 
Up ! scholar, bathe unwearied and unworn 
Thine earthly breast in morning's beams of red. 

What ought an educated man to be? What final 
result should come to pass in him? I reply first and 
midst and last : He should be more and more a man 
according to the advantages he has enjoyed of putting 
himself in communion with the life of humanity. The 
man who is educated has simply received more from 
the life of the world than other men. The experience 
of mankind, as expressed in literature, history, science, 
philosophy, has been tributary to him; he has re- 
ceived more of the life of humanity, and surely he 
ought to be more human, as the prime result of his 
privilege. He ought to be five men in the delicacy of 
his perceptions and in the breadth of his sympathies. 
Instead of taking advantage of his fellow-men by the 



SAYINGS AND EXTRACTS 225 

superiority of his attainments, he ought to be all the 
more their minister and benefactor. Instead of boast- 
ing that he is of the people and has risen by force of 
his own faculty, it should be his pride and joy that he 
is not merely of the people, but that he is for the 
people — not their flatterer, not their cajoler, but , 
their believing counselor and friend, who will always 
be true to himself and true to them. The educated 
man should be as much more a man than other men as 
he has been receptive of the life of mankind. If his 
education does not augment all his human powers, for 
what cause has his education been ? Let him be care- 
ful how he diverts from this augmented manhood in 
any of the petty channels of immediate influence. Let 
him beware how he runs into any specialty of thought 
or action ; let him pursue his vocation ; let him do what 
is required to be done, but, whatever he is and what- 
ever he does, let him be and do with the whole breadth 
of his human nature, however office or the conven- 
tionalisms of society may support his abilities or aug- 
ment his influence. Ofhce can do something to increase 
his authority for good ; position may give him vantage- 
ground of power, but his chief reliance must be that he 
is a man among men. Whatever he is in particular, 
his manhood should be greater than that particular. 
He must be something more than all he knows or 
thinks or does. There must be an ever-increasing 
momentum of life and conscious being in him. Let 
him not think to find any goal in which to rest. Let 



226 HORATIO STEBBINS 



him not be politician, lawyer, preacher, engineer, 
philanthropist, temperance man, or abolitionist; let 
him not be Freemason, Oddfellow, or church member, 
but while he acts and thinks in these, let him be 
greater than them all. Although a man may stand on 
the balances with the weights in his pocket, there is a 
notch in which he goes, and his true avoirdupois, no 
more and no less, is in his manhood. When you have 
told a man to be a man, can you add anything to that 
counsel ? Are not all the powers of the universe tribu- 
tary to that ? Were they not made and inspired, even 
unto this end ? 

(From "Why Do We Cherish the University?" 1868.) 



CHAPTER X 



PRAYERS 

[The prayers of Horatio Stebbins were uttered with 
unquestioned sincerity and earnestness from the 
depths of a loving, reverent heart. Prayer was not a 
prescribed form, but the outflowing of his inmost soul 
in communion with the All-Father. In 1889 his son 
Roderick, without Dr. Stebbins's knowledge, engaged 
a stenographic reporter, who sent him, for nearly a 
year, reports of the prayers of the Sunday services. 
After Dr. Stebbins's death, they were published as a 
precious memorial of his ministry. The fire of 1906 
destroyed a large part of the edition and put the book 
out of print. A few of the prayers are therefore in- 
cluded in this volume.] 

O Infinite and Holy One, Almighty Providence of 
our lives, inspirer of our souls, the beginning of reason 
and the end of faith, we implore thee now by thy 
gracious spirit to come nigh unto thine own, and lead 
forth thy flock in green pastures beside the still waters 
of divine grace. "We were glad when our companions 
said to us, Let us go up into the house of the Lord." 
We are come in the gentle light of day ; the sun shines 
bright and fair ; our lives are blessed and our hearts 
are inspired by thy gracious spirit. We come as we are, 



228 HORATIO STEBBINS 



with all our earthly burdens ; we come as we are, with 
all our earthly joys, with all the hopes that thy spirit 
has kindled in our breasts, thou knowing us better 
than we know ourselves — our inward thoughts, our 
veriest purpose, our desires, our pain, our will, all 
known to thee. Pity our weakness; enlighten our 
darkness; confirm our feeble strength by thy own 
might ; and let thy children rise up and sit down and 
lift up their voices in gracious benediction and praise 
and blessing to thee, our God. 

O Holy One, Infinite Father, we invoke thy blessing 
on us always. Renew in our hearts our sense of depend- 
ence on thee, our sense of filial trust in thee. Conse- 
crate unto us all our experience ; what is dark do thou 
illume in thy time ; what is a deep trial, or pain, or 
anguish of any sort, do thou relieve and assuage ; and 
gently bless with tender and holy consolations and 
reverent feelings of how little we know of thy ways, 
the mystery of thy providences, the teachings and 
the wonders of thy grace. 

Almighty God, we thank thee for our daily affairs ; 
for our constant occupations ; for that which we find 
within our own dwellings, and in the world of men to 
occupy our minds, our hearts, and our hands. Give 
prosperity to our honorable industry, to our intelli- 
gent service ; and in doing good, in walking humbly, 
and in loving mercy, may we find the abundant 
reward and peace of thy divine kingdom. 

Almighty God, our Father, we would fix our minds 



PRAYERS 229 

and thoughts on thee now. We would think what thou 
art in thine ineffable beauty and perfectness ; and we 
would feel that thou hast inspired us with a nature 
kindred to thine own, and called us to the great calling 
to be sons of God. May our minds be inspired and 
filled with reverence and devout feeling and holy pur- 
pose of obedience and trust in thee ; and as we stand 
upon the great eminence — the great eminence of our 
Mount Zion, the city of our God — and look abroad 
over all the earthly scene of our experience, — its 
mystery, its trial, its abundant salvation, its kindness, 
its times of distress, — may we see in it all and through 
all a wondrous leading, a divine hand, a holy and pro- 
tecting care. 

Let thy blessing, Holy Father, be upon all to-day, as 
wide as the beams of the sun. Let thy gracious bene- 
diction be shed abroad. Guide with thy strong and 
merciful hand ; keep by thy pure spirit ; and save all by 
thy eternal grace. Hear our prayer ; forgive our sins, 
and remove them from us as far as east is from the 
west. As our earthly experience increases, may that 
experience stretch over into unknown worlds, into 
untried scenes ; and may divine wonder and curiosity 
enamour our hearts of what God has yet to reveal to 
his children. Amen. 

The day is bright and fair, the world is filled with the 
glory of the sun ; thy spirit, O God, goes forth inspiring 
the hearts of all thy children, and we come, beckoned 



23o HORATIO STEBBINS 

by divine signals, led on by holy hands, with our feel- 
ings drawn toward thee, to our place of prayer. Come 
to thy people as thou ever dost and hast done from all 
time ; come to us as to thy own, and give thy people 
peace. Forgive our sins ; subdue our minds to patience, 
to penitence, to prayer; lift up our hearts in holy 
gratitude with exultation of soul and bowing down and 
worship, and rising up before thee with awe and glad- 
ness and terrible reverence and comfort at thy good- 
ness, by thee manifested to thy children. 

We always thank thee, Almighty One ; we always 
bless thee, thou infinite and eternal God; and with 
holy patience and penitence and prayer we lift up 
our hearts to thee now. Let thy benediction be upon 
the homes we have left for an hour to come to this, 
our house of God. Consecrate them, consecrate this. 
Wherever our thoughts, flying on wings of imagina- 
tion and love, rest down upon those whom we would 
bless with thy blessing, there let thy love go inspiring, 
and thy almighty hand sustaining, comforting, and 
supporting. Let thy tender benediction be upon all 
thy suffering ones. Deal kindly with the wretched, 
the poor, the weak, the wicked, the wise, the good, the 
true. Thou knowest, Almighty One, our wants ; thou 
knowest and thou canst supply them by thy spirit 
and by thy grace and thy power. Subdue our hearts 
to thee. Teach us wisdom by thy divine grace and 
spirit. Lead us in plain paths of duty and consecrate 
to our minds and hearts our daily work. As we go 



PRAYERS 231 

forth at any hour of the day, in the morning, at mid- 
day or evening, may the rising of a new life, the satis- 
faction of midday strength, the tender thoughts of the 
evening glories, fill our hearts with the divine presence 
and holy companionship of God in heaven. Amen. 

Holy Father, Almighty One, hear the prayers of thy 
children now, and come to thine own with blessing and 
peace. We reverence thee and bow down in awe and 
holy fear; we lift up our voice in devout song and 
praise and prayer. Pity our weakness, help our igno- 
rance, heal our doubts and our wounds of mind and 
heart, and give thy people everlasting peace and trust 
and comfort and love. If any of thy people are in 
heavy trial, if they are alone in Gethsemane, be with 
them there with thy power and spirit, and lift them up 
and save them forever and ever ; and if the cup may 
not pass from them, may they be enabled to say from 
hearts enriched by obedience and faith, "Not my will 
but thine be done." 

We rejoice, Almighty God, in the themes of thy 
eternal truth, that truth which thou hast set in the 
nature of man, in the world around us, in the work of 
thy hands ; and hast illustrated by the lives of prophets 
and martyrs and saints, and by thy Son Jesus Christ. 
We thank thee that that truth, rising upon the world, 
never sets ; that it knows no eclipse of its increasing 
glory, but stands higher and higher until its beams shall 
illumine the whole world. 



232 HORATIO STEBBINS 

Confer upon us, O thou Almighty Spirit, the spirit 
of truth, the love of what is, the joy of thy command- 
ments, the beauty of thy love, and let us in our daily 
lives, with simplicity of heart and purity of thought, 
seek to know thee, to know our own being, our inmost 
purpose ; and may our thoughts and purpose be alike 
consecrated to thee. 

Let thy blessing be in every heart of man ; let it be 
in every human dwelling, resting down in holy peace 
upon little children, upon youth, upon mature man- 
hood, and upon the aged in years, and let all thy 
children be blessed in thee, their Father in heaven. 
Amen. 

O God, our Father, Infinite and Holy One, thou whose 
word is spoken in all places of thy dominion and the 
uttermost parts of the world; thou whose law goes 
forth to hold the worlds in their places and in whose 
hand the ocean rolls ; thou hast proclaimed thy word 
and thy truth to the children of men ; thou hast set 
thy Son Jesus Christ to confirm that word, to estab- 
lish and to keep it forever and ever. 

We adore thy greatness ; we bow in humble rever- 
ence before it, and we lean with filial trust upon thy 
paternal arm. Owning the presence of thy inspiring 
spirit in all those great sentiments of the human heart 
which have struggled on in the darkest periods of 
man's trial and ignorance and sin, we thank thee that 
somehow through the wicket gate of death we see a 



PRAYERS 233 

heavenly light. We thank thee, owning the influence 
of thy everlasting spirit, for that faith by which thine 
humble children are gone up from earth as the sea 
ascends in mists. They have gone up with humble 
hope, with humble trust, that somewhere and some- 
how they would be nearer thee, their Maker, and feel 
thy paternal arm. In times of darkness and ignorance 
and sin we thank thee that this great hope has strug- 
gled on in the human soul. 

We thank thee, Almighty One, in the name of thy 
Son Jesus Christ, that thou hast confirmed the heart 
of man and strengthened his hope and comforted his 
spirit ; that thou hast given to him thy Son to abolish 
death, to bring life and immortality to light through 
his gospel and to establish thy eternal kingdom and 
that infinite communion of earth and heaven. Let 
this spirit and this faith be upon all thy people to-day, 
on every land and clime and race and tongue ; and in 
whatever humble ways men worship thee, O God, 
hear their prayers, strengthen their hearts, confirm 
their hopes, and lead them forth to everlasting life. 

We ask thy blessing upon us now, and receive, we 
pray thee, our humble prayers, our penitent confes- 
sions ; and lift up thy people forever and ever. Let the 
blessing of the truth of the gospel of thy Son be in all 
our dwellings. Let it be in all our hearts, blessing, 
consoling, lifting up, and comforting amidst trials or 
perplexities or joy or gladness, forever and ever. 
Amen. 



234 HORATIO STEBBINS 

Again we come in the evening hour to this our place of 
prayer. Again we lift up our heart and voice to thee 
and commend ourselves and all those who are dear 
to us to thy holy providence, thy paternal and ever 
friendly care. 

The pleasant day is gone. Evening shadows are 
falling around the dwellings of man, and thy care and 
thy watching are over all. We adore thy providence ; 
we wonder at thy works, the marvelous works thou 
art doing and hast been doing from when time began 
until now ; and the experience of human life, renewed 
in the hearts of every generation, repeated in our 
hearts and lives, the leading of thy providence, the 
monitions of thy spirit, the direction of thy will — all 
these fill our hearts with a revering adoration, and we 
look forward and around us, and upward, and we gain 
new and divine suggestions and hints of our being and 
our destiny. 

We thank thee for all the records of thy providence 
in the world of men, for the testimony which the great 
and the good, the illustrious exemplars of mankind 
give of their confidence and their trust when guided 
by thy almighty hand. We thank thee for the story 
of the childhood of man ; for thy care of him, for thy 
watching over him, for the adaptation of thy teaching 
to his mind and heart, and for thy guidance by thy 
spirit and thy Son. 

Let a reverent mind, we pray thee, let a devout 
temper and disposition, penetrate our hearts. Dismiss 



PRAYERS 235 

from our minds all conceit of knowledge. Now may 
reason and faith and affection, pure feeling and pure 
thoughts, guide us, inspire us, and keep us in perfect 
peace. 

Almighty God, we ask thy blessing upon all those 
whom we think of when we think of the human ties 
that bind us ; we remember our fathers and mothers 
and brothers and sisters and neighbors and friends of 
to-day. For every feature of human life and experience, 
for every joy and grace, for every pain we bear, we 
give thee revering gratitude, and we invoke on us 
daily thine eternal good-will. 

Let thy blessing be upon every human dwelling, on 
every human heart; chastise, reprove, lead by thy 
hand, lift up, restore, and strengthen, and let all thy 
children be blessed in thee. Amen. 



CHAPTER XI 1 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 

A CONFERENCE SERMON 

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh . . . whose voice then 
shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more 
I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once 
more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken . . . 
that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12; 
25, 26, 27.) 

The style of Asiatic grandeur in which things moral 
and spiritual are set forth in the New Testament 
requires to be toned down a little to meet the severer 
and more logical mind of the modern time. The Orien- 
tal mind is huge, and is fond of cloudy magnificence, 
gigantic splendors, and world-on-fire catastrophes. 
Nature is awful and overwhelming in Asia, and a great 
writer has said that if Europe had been projected on 
the scale of terribleness of the Whang Ho or the Hindu 
Kush, the modern civilization could not have been. 
However that may be, Asia, the homestead of man- 
kind, was fit place for the childhood of humanity, 
and the birthplace of religions. 

1 Few sermons or addresses of Dr. Stebbins have ever appeared in 
print. He steadfastly refused to allow the publication of a volume, 
and only occasionally yielded to request that a sermon should be 
published. The sermon of the Saratoga Convention in 1884 has 
been widely read, and several addresses printed by the Channing 
Auxiliary are treasured by their owners. Restricted to the choice of 
sermons already printed, I take one that was preached at the dedica- 
tion of the Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California, November 20, 
1898. 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 237 

The mountainous and smoky style of the writer 
that I have quoted would have been modified by a 
kind of human common sense if he had been a delegate 
to the Pan-Anglican Convention or the Methodist 
Conference of the modern time. He would have said, 
"Many things that once seemed firm have passed 
away, and they have passed away that the eternal 
things may abide unshaken." 

On an occasion like this, gathered as we are to take 
grateful and reverent note of the completion of a 
simple building devoted to worship, prayer, and teach- 
ing, it is becoming in us, amid the shifting scenery of 
religious thought, which to some minds is cause of 
doubt and alarm, but to others the dawn of a new day, 
to consider what has been shaken, and what remains 
unshaken. I invoke the aid of that Almighty Spirit 
that giveth us understanding that I may inquire with 
reverence and love concerning the deep things of God 
revealed in the history of humanity. I will unfold no 
panoramic scene or world-view, but be content if I 
may flash a light here and there along the horizon that 
o'erflows the urns of eternal splendor. 

I suppose there is no danger that man will ever lose 
sight of God, that Almighty Being whose power gives 
law to suns and stars, and whose spirit in man reveals 
the awful glories of right and wrong. The only change 
there can be is in man's idea of him. That there have 
been great changes there can be no doubt, from age to 
age, and from generation to generation. Many things 



2 3 8 HORATIO STEBBINS 

that were thought to be permanent have proved to be 
transient, as man has been educated by the graduated 
steps of an imperfect morality. The idea, the thought 
that men have of God, depends on the time, the age, 
and I might add, on the temperament of men. Abra- 
ham and Isaiah, David and Whittier ! Wesley said 
that Whitfield's God was his devil ! But amid all this 
change and passing away, the idea of God remains an 
everlasting possession to the mind and heart of man. 
Hawthorne says, "The reason why the mass of men 
fear God, and at bottom dislike him, is because they 
distrust his heart." The great change that has come is 
that humanity and divinity are the same in quality, 
differing only in degree. The great transformation is 
the spiritual humanizationof God, the idea that reason, 
conscience, affection in us are the true interpreters of 
him, and that the smallest particle of truth, or right, 
or love here on earth, is of the same nature with the 
eternal reason and the eternal love. A God whom we 
suspect of being ill-tempered and self-willed is no God, 
only an idol, a bad imagination of ignorance and pas- 
sion. If we attribute to him, or allow to be attributed 
to him, characteristics unworthy of man, character- 
istics that are incompatible with reason and love, 
our belief is only the belief of a Samson bully, and not 
the belief of the sons of God. The idea of God perma- 
nantly survives, and the being that we can per- 
manently worship is a God of love, the most sublime 
conception of which the mind and heart of man are 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 239 

capable. And when we say that God is love, we know 
what we mean. It is the best of all that can be ex- 
pressed in action or character. It flings a heavenly 
glory on every human sense, and, like the angel in 
Abou Ben Adhem's dream, fills the dusty corners of 
our earthly dwelling with celestial light. We have our 
true life only in love. Call to mind those who have 
had the sweetest influences — they are those whose 
presence shone on you as a light not on sea or land, and 
warmed your heart to surprising powers of excellence 
and beauty, and you wished that you were altogether 
as they, who filled the simplest word or deed with 
eternal kindness. For this, science, learning, wit, and 
wisdom uncover their heads and stand in holy awe. 
Around this the universe of worlds and souls revolves, 
God-centered in eternal hope. Let all things else be 
shaken, this that cannot be shaken remains. 

There is a book that is reverently regarded as the 
special repository and record of God's word and provi- 
dence, through the ages of his care for human-kind. 
It is a book made of many books bound in one, to 
unite and unify the divine teaching from age to age. 
Written by different men at different times, widely 
separated, it seems a kind of autobiography of human 
nature jotted down in happy moments, of personal 
experience in all the simplicity of personal conscious- 
ness. The first wondering impressions of the newcomer 
just arrived on this earth; the hardened heart and 
daring crimes of the long resident here, forgetting that 



2 4 o HORATIO STEBBINS 



the world was not his, and he only a tenant at will ; the 
recalled and penitent spirit awakened by the voice of 
Christ, when to the world, dead in custom, he brought 
back the living presence of God, and to the first rever- 
ence added love. All this, and more, is written there, 
in happy moments of inspiration such as have fallen 
upon the ensamples and leaders of our race during the 
lapse of centuries. The land and country of the book 
is a well-chosen spot, a kind of watch-tower, from 
which men can overlook the history of the world. A 
bit of mountainous land in the southwest corner of 
Asia, across which merchants, shepherds, and Arabs 
guided their caravans, pitched their tents, or hid in 
mountain dens. India, Babylon, Jerusalem, Egypt, 
all are spread out beneath the imagination of one who 
would see the panorama moved by the finger of Provi- 
dence. 

This book has taken such a hold on a portion of the 
human race as no other book has ever done. All the 
best books of Christendom are born of the thoughts 
and ideas of this book, coming from a nation despised 
in ancient and modern times. It is read at the hour or 
day in millions of places on the earth, and a hundred 
times a year in each place. It is a presence, and when 
men unaccustomed read or hear it read, they wonder 
as the patriarch did when he awoke from his stony 
pillow and exclaimed, "God was in this place and I 
knew it not." The book tells of God and his Son. 

A book that has such influence over men ought to be 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 241 



regarded reverently and carefully. We ought to expect 
something from it as we do from Shakespeare and Mil- 
ton. We read them expecting to find great things ; and 
the Bible read so would reveal great universal testi- 
mony of things human and divine. It is a kind of 
natural inheritance into which we are born. 

But while this state of mind is proper, legitimate, 
indispensable, indeed, to a just appreciation of the 
Bible, it is not a complete opinion. We must apply 
our intelligence and reason to these writings as we 
would to all great writings. They are the work of dif- 
ferent minds through a period of a thousand years. 
Nothing human is infallible. Infallibility belongs only 
to the Infinite mind that moves in the rhythm of 
Almighty power and love. The same liberal studies 
that unfold the meaning of all history must be be- 
stowed upon the Bible. When Niebuhr's history of 
Rome appeared, Arnold of Rugby said that, when 
studies like Niebuhr's were directed to the Bible, we 
should understand it much better. I cannot touch the 
question of inspiration — that is a theme by itself. 
The Bible, when liberal studies have done their work, 
will be regarded as one of the providential records of 
the education of the race. It is the book of human 
nature from childhood to maturity. Myth, fable, 
parable, and miracle are there, and the speech of 
humanity in its loftiest moods of virtue and prayer. 
The natural history of the soul is there written for all 
mankind. It justifies itself to the mind of a child, and 



242 HORATIO STEBBINS 

to the conscience of a man. It tells stories of childhood 
wonders and utters truth profound as human nature 
and perpetual as time. 

The Bible is not an infallible book. Some, thinking 
so, have taken the book instead of God. It is history, 
literature, law, and religion. It is to be read, studied, 
and reasoned about so. There is much in it from which 
we gain little, there is much in it from which all 
things of eternal worth may be won. There is much in 
it that is not true, but truth burns there unconsumed 
from age to age. Historic truth is not the only truth ; 
a fact that is not historically true may yet be true 
on a higher plane than that of history ; true to eter- 
nal reason, to moral and religious sentiment — and 
human need. A fact means nothing until it is pene- 
trated with thought, and transmuted from gross sub- 
stance into idea. The story of Belshazzar's feast may 
not be history, but the idea of fallen greatness is an 
eternal admonition to all the votaries of pride and 
power, as Shakespeare puts it in the mouth of Wolsey 
in the modern time : 

Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies. 

The story of Christ's temptation, the scientific 
critics tell us, is not literal historic fact. Let it be so. 
The story is none the less true, but a great deal more 
so, when the narrative which embodies the inner truth 
and experience of a human soul is conceived as myth 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 243 

than when understood as matter-of-fact history. The 
idea of the myth, the terrible idea that God has placed 
us here in the midst of temptation, from which the Son 
of Man was not exempt ; that is the truth which con- 
cerns us far more than the rude outline of devilish wit 
sitting on the pinnacle of the temple or climbing a 
mountain with nothing to eat. Idea is what illumines 
the mind, not fact recorded in the mythopeic age. 
Again, the story of Jesus and the fig tree. That has no 
idea, and was probably put there by some interliner. 
We have no hesitation in saying that it is not true that 
Jesus was angry at a fig tree because it had no fruit — 
and that out of season. If we know anything in the 
light of truth and reason, we know that this could not 
be true of Jesus. Thus we study reverently, enlight- 
ened by beams of eternal light, and follow the track 
of truth through centuries, as moonbeams on mid- 
night waters. Let liberal studies, higher and lower, 
let science bring all the methods of nature to shake 
the earth of ancient opinion, and remove the things 
that are shaken, that those things which cannot be 
shaken may remain. 

Out of the Bible, before science was born, there were 
strange doctrines of the will of God built up with mas- 
sive logic, and dark mountainous power, as the guides 
of human conduct, and the sure prophecy, of human 
destiny. Never was a man on earth so resolute to tear 
out and destroy all that was false, so resolute to estab- 
lish what was true, and to make truth, to the very last 



244 HORATIO STEBBINS 

fiber of it, the rule of practical life, as John Calvin. He 
could ride all day in the valley of the Rhine and see not 
a thing of beauty. John Calvin is dead, and his doc- 
trines of God and man are his winding-sheet. Walk 
reverently and look upon that face, and lay a leaf of 
holly, or myrtle, or immortelles on his bier. As far as 
the state of knowledge permitted, he laid the founda- 
tion and reared the walls of the most terrible system 
ever devised by man. The strong angel has spoken — 
earth and heaven are shaken that those things which 
cannot be shaken may remain. 

Silent influences have been working on the common 
mind, not only through religion directly, but through 
literature. Whatever is humanizing, whatever reveals 
a sympathy between the human and divine, gives the 
keynote of the human world, and reveals the heart of 
God. Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Carlyle, Emerson, 
have made manhood the standard of virtue. The great 
transition of thought is from theology to humanity. 
Jesus said, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." 
If we believe in God we must believe in ourselves — 
that we are spiritual beings of like nature with him. 
And if we have this great belief in God and ourselves, 
we shall not go amiss amid many doctrines, and while 
many things are shaken, that which cannot be shaken 
will endure. We need to minimize our beliefs, and 
weigh them rather than count them. To know too 
much is a sign of a sterile mind. We should cherish a 
wise agnosticism. We live by apprehension more than 



THAT WHICH REMAINETH 245 

by comprehension. A poet has said : "Things proved 
are not worth proving." All our great beliefs are dar- 
ing assumptions ; they were not reasoned into us, and 
they cannot be reasoned out of us. It is the promise 
of our own nature that gives us hold on things eternal. 
Every man is convinced of his own being, though he 
may not have reflected on it to learn what it implies. 
But its chief attributes are so obvious that, when once 
attention has been called to them, they cannot fail to 
be discussed and recognized. These attributes, call 
them what you will — reason, conscience, faith, love, 
or individuality, self-consciousness, free will — give 
us rank as children of God, the great distinction 
between creatures and beings. A great writer has 
said : "What the thing is, which we call ourselves, we 
know not. It may be true. I for one care not that the 
descent of our mortal bodies may be traced through 
an ascending series to some glutinous organism on the 
rocks of the primeval ocean. It is nothing to me that 
the maker of me has been pleased to construct the 
perishable frame which I call my body. It is mine, but 
it is not me. The intellectual spirit we believe to be 
incompatible, something that has been engendered in 
us from another source." 

The spiritual mind is angelic — strong in insight 
and emotion. The spiritual man, not the pietist or 
creed-monger, is he whose intellectual and moral 
powers are raised to a point of vision and action, 
whence he discerns the unity of law without, and the 



246 HORATIO STEBBINS 

unity of law within ; whose mind, free of superstition 
and degrading fears, is at home in the world, and, 
beholding on every hand tokens of good, finds happi- 
ness in duty, and, without anxiety or fear, trusts him- 
self to that goodness of which his own upright will 
and pure heart are the promise and the pledge. 

May the sublime truths, drawn from the Being of 
God and the nature of man, be taught here, with 
prayer and song, and illustrated in the moral beauty 
of daily life* 



CHAPTER XII 1 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 

A SERMON 

When he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of 
God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, 
lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said 
unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see 
one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they 
shall say to-you, See here ; or, see there : go not after them, nor follow 
them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under 
heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the 
Son of man be in his day. (Luke 17 : 20-24.) 

The friends of God have great cause for gratitude and 
joy in the ever-renewed tokens that his mercy is from 
everlasting to everlasting, and that his truth endureth 
to all generations. There have been times of distress 
when God's people looked with fear and trembling 
lest he had become weary or his heart had failed. But 
from age to age a light gleams from one part under 
heaven, even unto the other part under heaven, and 
God seems nearer and nearer his beloved race, while 
man's heart and woman's tears win new victories of 
the soul. 

Is there a God in history ? Is there a Providence in 
the life of mankind ? The ancient prophet had a vision 
of it through the rifted clouds of wonder and mystery, 
when humanity was young. The prophet conceived 

1 The sermon in this chapter was printed by the British and Foreign 
Unitarian Association in London in August, 1893. 



248 HORATIO STEBBINS 

humanity in the relation of a child to his parent : the 
child's image is formed on the retina of the father's eye, 
and the father caresses him, the little man of his eye, 
and loves him for the tie of kindred blood and the 
beauty of his being. 

Another prophet and apostle conceives humanity 
not in infancy, but in childhood, led by the pedagogue 
to school — the young scholar brought to the master 
by the father's servant, who guided and urged on the 
boy, carried his satchel, and saw him safe at the door, 
where the teacher received him to the hospitalities of a 
larger mind. "The law was our pedagogue to bring us 
to Christ" — a conception of the provisional and pro- 
gressive character of divine guidance, culminating at 
length in the fullness of light and life, when God shall 
be all in all. 

Yet another, brooding over the mighty theme of 
God's ways, ascends the ages and ieons, and catches a 
glimpse of the eternal method, which in our day is the 
sublime generalization of the patient love and judicial 
mind of science : 

My frame was not hidden from Thee, 
When I was made in secret, 

And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
Thine eyes did see mine imperfect substance, 
And in thy book were all my members written, 
Which day by day were fashioned, 
When as yet there was none of them. 



Prophetic vision, spiritual genius, is ever seeing new 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 249 

worlds beyond the western horizon, and the setting sun 
of to-day is the dawn of to-morrow ; while to the simply 
practical mind the present is a finality, the world is 
finished. God has fulfilled the contract he made with 
man : the work is done. Yet we hear much of progress. 
The air is full. It is with us wherever we go, importun- 
ing us for attention, admiration, or wonder. Progress 
in the material world is in the market-place — a thing 
of length and breadth and thickness, that can be 
bought at a price. It comes home to our comfort, 
refinement, or luxury. No man in his senses will speak 
lightly of man's conquest over nature, as we call it, 
nor affect the conceit of indifference to the wonderful 
works of the hands and the brains of the children of 
men. Nor will he deny, but gratefully confess, the 
indirect influence of these upon morals and religion. 
There is a sense in which material comfort sweetens 
life and relieves the hardness of necessity. Though 
the sufferings of the world may be changed, they are 
not less, even as the increase of knowledge does not 
diminish the area of the unknown. So there is no 
patent right to make virtue and honor easy; nor is 
the electric light to be confounded with "the lightning 
that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven," and 
"shineth unto the other part under heaven." There is 
no essential and eternal relation between righteousness 
and physical comfort, as there is no essential and 
eternal relation between the salary of a judge and the 
judicial mind. In war the science of attack is, in the 



250 HORATIO STEBBINS 

long run, matched by the science of defense, and dyna- 
mite is as good for an anarchist to tear a town into 
human agonies, as it is for an engineer to compel the 
sullen rocks or make the proud mountain bellow with 
pain. The conductor of a street-car, unless there is a 
sparkling gem of honor in his breast, can outwit the 
spring-punch ; and trying to make a man honest, true, 
and pure by "improvements" is like putting a fox to 
bed, and teaching him to lay his head on a pillow and 
sleep like a child. 

Of course, it is a mere platitude of the village moral- 
ist to say that, if men were inspired with high and pure 
principles, the world's wrongs would be righted. But 
that is not what I am saying. Our notions of progress 
are often vague, and it is good to know what we mean. 
The world is a unit, and there is One Lawgiver for 
starry heavens and soul of man. The virtues are many, 
but virtue is one : ten commandments, but one right- 
eousness. The kingdom of God includes all the inci- 
dentals ; but the natural center and germ of the world, 
the idea of progress, is in morals and religion. There 
the responsible God meets responsible man ; and all 
the conquered powers of nature follow, if haply they 
may render willing service. The kingdom of God — 
that kingdom which is the peculiar field of divine 
powers and operations — has its own methods of still 
and quiet coming. Its field is the mind of man, where 
results alone are manifest: the process is concealed. 
How fares it in this kingdom of God, in which results 
alone are manifest? 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 1251 

The great truth is now, ever has been, and ever shall 
be that man is the crown of the world ; that the study 
of his nature and the conditions of his life is the focus 
of intellectual rays, and the ever-brightening way of 
all divine ambition. To this end of man's honor and 
advancement all institutions — science, art, philos- 
ophy, and religion — are subordinated. To increase 
the capacity and refine the quality of human nature 
and human life, to raise man's powers to a height of 
vision and action where he discerns the nature and 
relation of things, sees truth, is not humiliated by 
ghostly superstition or mean fear, finds perennial 
fountains of thought and life within himself and the 
scenes in which he moves, acts amid the egotism of the 
senses and the impudence of social fallacies, under the 
guidance of enlightened conscience and responsible 
will, warmed by the genial beams of human love — 
this is the kingdom of God within, and the lightning 
that flashes across the firmament. This goes behind 
economics, behind social solidarity, to the individual 
man on his own account, and as the medium of that 
inspiration that informs and guides the world. To us, 
in our bulky thought, this world of men often seems all 
solid ; but to an Infinite Mind it is all individual. God 
inspires this world through individuals, never through 
crowds or corporations ; and he reveals himself only to 
congenial souls, as they are able to receive the light 
and love. 

We get a hint of this kingdom that comes without 



HORATIO STEBBINS 

observation, or like a flash of light across the heavens, 
filling the mind with divine splendor, in the growth and 
development of a human being. What a distance is 
traveled from the life of a child to the lif e of a man ! 
A distance of thought as great as that which divides 
the age of Pliny and his panthers at the celebration of 
his friend's wife's funeral and the sweet griefs of a 
Christian home, where that light that is not on land 
or sea is quenched to mortal eyes. 

Look at the child in his mother's arms or prattling 
with his toys. He is innocent and lawless — innocent 
because he has no conception of right and wrong. His 
will is wild and feline, and he has no more thought of 
obedience than the cat that he strangles in his unimag- 
inative cruelty. He is a thief, and takes anything he 
can lay his hands on. His knowledge of cause and 
effect comes by getting hurt, and he has no idea of 
nature or of a law of nature more than of a bar of 
music or of the tides. Reason, conscience, reverence, 
love, lie folded like buds untouched by the sun. 

But see this same creature again, when conscious- 
ness and personality have arisen, and distinguished 
him to himself from the world of things and creatures 
around. As the ancient lyrist has it, he is but little 
lower than God, crowned with glory and honor. He 
has dominion over God's works, and all things are put 
under his feet. He tills the earth, conquers the sea, 
finds the law that holds atoms and worlds. Reason 
assumes sway over the senses, sends out her voice to 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 253 

far realms of speech and language, and gets reply in 
mother tongue, then, turning to the world within, 
finds lineaments of the inspiring God ! Well might 
the modern seer translate into modern phrase what the 
ancient lyrist sung: u O rich and various man! thou 
palace of sight and sound, carrying in thy senses the 
morning and the night and the unfathomable galaxy, 
in thy brain the geometry of the city of God, in thy 
heart the power of love and the realms of right and 
wrong !'*' 

I am not indifferent to the splendors of scientific 
achievement or to the conquests of man's spiritual 
nature over the material world. But to me there is no 
wonder of man's empire over sea or land that so 
kindles imagination or flashes such streams of light 
into the future of man's possible destiny as this devel- 
opment of a human soul. That a child should ever 
become a Plato, a Milton, or a Darwin fills the mind 
with proud yet humble awe, more than all the gran- 
deurs of the universe, as they sing the song of eternal 
reason, and more than that sublime patience and skill 
that gather large masses of facts of the most varied 
kind, and bring them under the reign of known law. 

Thou gazest on the stars, my soul. 
Ah ! gladly would I be on starry 
Sky, with thousand eyes, 
That I might gaze on thee ! 

What is this marvelous development? What makes 
this growth, which seems not so much a growth as a 



254 HORATIO STEBBINS 

burst of splendor from an unknown sphere? Do we 
guess backward from fact to principle, and say, 
Evolution; as in another sphere we guess backward 
from fact to principle and say, Gravitation? But 
gravitation and evolution are methods, not causes. 
Religion and reason, unmindful of method, as science 
is unmindful of cause, affirm that these are ways of 
God's working. Gravitation is the universal force — 
reason and religion call it will, diffused through all 
realms, and of the same nature and kind, whether dis- 
played in the ball tossed from a boy's hand or "in the 
process of the suns." Gravitation unifies the universe 
in one Eternal Will. Evolution, in its strictly human 
sphere, is the unfolding in man of powers which recog- 
nize themselves and their own law, and, reading the 
universe between the lines, find signatures of power 
like themselves, and, guessing back from fact to prin- 
ciple, affirm God in man, and humanity of the same 
nature with God. As the force that draws the ball 
tossed from the boy's hand is the same as that which 
leads forth the Mazzaroth in their season, so the fee- 
blest bond of right or duty, or sigh or joy of human love, 
is of the same kind as in the ever-living One. This 
thought as a divine insight, not as a scientific conclu- 
sion, culminated in the mind of Jesus, and makes him a 
fountain of truth for the education of the world, and 
gives him the unique and lovely grandeur of Teacher 
of mankind. 

As it was in his day, so it is in the day of the Son of 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 255 

man forever, with all the children of men, — thought, 
idea, vision of truth, — that is not here nor there, nor 
local nor provincial, nor for hell nor for heaven, but 
human and divine, filling the mind with light, and 
flashing across the world. All our inspirations come 
through men who have the insight of the Son of man 
in his day, who have seen truth as it is in eternal 
beauty, felt at home in the universe whenever night 
overtakes them, and at one with the eternal good-will. 
Thus the consummate personality is the teacher, the 
medium of celestial fire, the Son of man in his day. 
His being, his presence, his word, awaken other beings 
like himself, and reason speaks a universal language, 
and faith flies on easy wing across the abyss too deep 
for human thought. This is revelation in its highest 
and purest sense — the unveiling of truth to human 
vision, which has been going on from the beginning 
through saints and seers, and is still going on with the 
whole human race. It is no climax of time or occasion, 
no day of the Son of man surprising the world, and 
men crying, "See here ! " "See there !" but the Son of 
man in his day, diffusing his mind and heart through 
other minds and hearts kindred to his own, increasing 
the capacity and refining the quality of human nature 
and fife. The Son of man in his day reveals other men 
to themselves, finds them in the recesses of their 
being, shines on their minds with celestial light, and 
sets their hearts aglow with love. This is the teacher 
of men, the benefactor of his race, whose flashes of 



256 HORATIO STEBBINS 

universal reason and common sense fill the sphere with 
light, telling men that all the heroism of the world, 
the greatness of history, and the loveliness of life are 
in the primal dictates of conscience and the primitive 
suggestions of the heart, and that the strength of wis- 
dom and experience is in knowing how much we could 
have known without the experience if we had had the 
insight to discern and the courage to follow, at first, 
that which we find true at last. No amount of obser- 
vation can take the place of insight. "See here!" or 
"See there !" is the surprise of the provincial mind or 
the cry of the quack that has got some new compound 
with which to medicine the credulous world. 

Thought, idea, conception, changes the mind, re- 
news the heart, plumes the imagination, and the world 
and human life and destiny are changed, and knowl- 
edge is vitalized by reason. Who cannot call to mind 
some hint or suggestion that has unlocked his heart, 
voiced his common sense, and charged his intellect 
with cheerful courage without which truth was never 
won? I once knew a youth, a boy, whose heart was 
moved, as the trees of the wood are moved by the 
wind, by religious thoughts and musings of wonder, 
love, and fear. The walls of the chambers of destiny, 
painted in vivid colors, were the dwelling-place of 
imagination to him. Under the genial shade of an oak 
at noontide the patient oxen, released from the 
plough, refreshed their strength with sweet-scented 
hay, while he lay on the ground, reading from a little 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 257 

book of sermons by Dewey. The tender pathos, the 
kindling sympathy, the fine insight, sank into his 
heart and illumined his mind. The great impression 
that he got was that the world and life were the scene 
of moral and spiritual discipline for beings capable of 
divine society, and that all the scenery, providence, 
and experience of life are for the teaching of men. 
The thought gave the boy's heart the keynote of the 
world. It was like coming up out of a well, and climb- 
ing a lovely hillside to view the landscape. The air 
was pure, the sky was clear, the river flowed gladly to 
the sea, trees laughed in the wind, and the jingling 
team threw their heads high, as if their yoke was easy 
and their burdens light. The Son of man in his day 
illumined the heavens of a boy's mind, and flashed 
celestial beams from horizon to horizon. Such as this 
is teaching, such as this is history — a flash of reason 
that lets the primal instincts out of the dark and 
endows them with sight and power and courage of free 
speech in their own name. Thus every teacher is a 
Son of man in his day, lightening the heavens of 
thought and feeling, and kindling the fires of con- 
science and love on all the heights. The consummate 
personality is the teacher; and the consummate 
teacher is the Son of man, the knowing one, the seeing 
one, the loving one. He knows, as like knows like ; he 
sees with the inner eye, and loves with the human 
heart. He is rare, more rare, it may be, than great 
men in other walks of life. And few follow him, it may 



258 HORATIO STEBBINS 

be, because of dimness of vision ; but those few hear 
his voice, and see the banner that he waves, and plant 
it at length on the war-worn walls of the world. 
Teaching of any kind is only moderately successful, 
and the teacher knows but little of his influence ; but, 
if he is in love with human nature, he knows that God 
is in love with him, and that he treads the way by 
which man becomes immortal. The influence of truth 
is not clamorous or demonstrative, but 

As sunbeams stream through liberal space, 
And nothing jostle or displace. 

We hear much of our age, of its discontents, the dis- 
solving of opinions and creeds. There is doubtless 
some exposure to melancholy croaking on the one 
hand and to feeble cant on the other — the cant of 
progress and the croaking of decline. The chief cause 
of disturbance is the discordance of religion and knowl- 
edge arising in the sublime and world-atoning truth 
that the more we know of nature, the finer is our con- 
ception of the supernatural, and the more we know of 
man, the better we think of God. The Son of man in 
his day knows nothing of this disturbance, feels it not. 
There is no collision between old and new in his crea- 
tive thought. Let knowledge soar with eye undazzled 
toward the sun ; the Son of man in his day, inspired by 
reason and sympathy with truth, is greater than 
knowledge ; for he has power to master it, to appropri- 
ate it, and make all the past tributary to the present. 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 259 

He has charge of truth, the common inheritance of 
humanity and not one jot or one tittle shall fail or be 
forgotten. He has no conflict with the past, for he sees 
the truth that is interwoven with error, and his heart 
is in sympathy with the wisdom of mankind : 

By Heaven ! there should not be a seer who left 
The world one doctrine, but I'd task his lore 
And commune with his spirit. All the truth 
Of all the tongues of earth — I'd have them all, 
Had I the powerful spell to raise their ghosts ! 

The conflict of religion with knowledge in minds that 
cannot appropriate the knowledge is the center of the 
disturbance of our time. I had a friend in former years, 
well tried and faithful, in whom a fine conservative ex- 
perience and true spirit of enterprise united to make 
what we call wisdom. He invested freely in coal mines, 
rich in that illuminating oil that has so transformed the 
evening hours in the homes of our land. He built ships 
for freight and wharves for landing and furnaces for 
purifying fires. In a night the mountains of Pennsyl- 
vania poured out rivers of oil, and superseded ships 
and wharves and fiery furnaces. My friend suffered a 
momentary shock; but his wisdom was supreme, 
mastering and papropriating the new knowledge. 

The Son of man in his day is ever revealing new con- 
ceptions of the human and the divine ; and, when Jesus 
says, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye 
cannot bear them now," he shows the amazing force 
and comprehension of his character. He recognized 



26o HORATIO STEBBINS 



the human-world fact of the conflict between past 
experience and new knowledge in the common mind — 
that all growth has a history, and truth creates the 
circumstances that aid its progress, as the atmosphere 
diffuses the beams of the sun. He saw in his pure vision 
that high truth was at a disadvantage in low minds, 
and that the baser the religion, the plainer the god. 
But the Son of man has no conflict in his mind or 
heart between old faith and new knowledge. To him 
evolution is only another name for history, and history 
is the method in which God is ever manifesting himself 
in the flesh. He knows the difference between science 
and religion, that religion is concerned with cause and 
science with method, and whatever science approves 
he adopts, always subjecting things to persons. 

And here is the pinch to which the Son of man is put 
in his day — it is to teach men to recognize the divine 
order in the development of truth, to know that every 
doctrine that has gathered around it a body of believ- 
ers has a germ of truth that can never perish, and that 
all true progress out of the past must carry with it into 
the future all the truth that the past has won. There 
is a timely and seasonal development of truth to differ- 
ent minds as they are prepared to receive it. As the 
discoveries and applications of science have come in a 
kind of providential order, according to the want and 
ability of the world to receive them, so Christianity 
has been unfolded according to the want and ability 
of human nature. Religion is the most flexible of all 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 261 



forms of thought ; and, of all religions, Christianity is 
most supple, and adapts itself with tender sympathy 
to the humble devotee who bows before the cross on 
which God is stretched in pitying love and grief, or 
croons and kisses the picture of the mother that bore 
him, to him who with true angelic vision worships 
the Father neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem, 
but in spirit and in truth. Consider the divisions of 
Christendom : the Greek Church, that quintessence of 
Orthodoxy ; the Roman Catholic Church, the custo- 
dian of truth that is promulgated by the vicegerent of 
Christ, as he " looks from his throne of clouds o'er half 
the world" ; the Protestant sects that have their little 
or great followings, and their little opinions and con- 
tradictions — these are all Christians included in the 
divine hospitality of the mind of Christ. This is the 
liberality of Jesus and of his truth — the recognition 
that different geologic eras of the mind are represented 
in society, and that Silurians are on the earth in every 
age. To understand this, to see it and feel it, to dis- 
cover it in imagination, and to sympathize with it in 
the heart, is the climax of the liberal mind, as it is the 
glory and perfection of the liberal God. This is the Son 
of man in his day, the child of the light, who speaks 
from the level of his mind, with all the sympathies of 
truth. It is the balance of judgment and insight, of 
conservatism and progress, of poetic faculty and plod- 
ding practicability. He says there are many things 
that cannot be received now, but he knows that the 



262 HORATIO STEBBINS 



spirit of truth will yet unlock the treasures of human 
nature. He knows no landings on the " stairs that lead 
through darkness up to God," and he no more thinks 
of coming to a stand from which there is no advance 
than the scientific man thinks to conclude his dis- 
coveries. The Son of man in his day never thinks him- 
self a finality. 

It is nigh two thousand years that our religion has 
been on earth, bearing the name of its Founder ; and 
yet the summits of Christendom are just beginning to 
be touched with the day-spring from on high. Man 
has been on this earth for tens of thousands of years, 
yet he is just beginning to get hold of the powers of the 
world, and learning to write Nature with a capital N. 
The true account of this is that truth is revealed to 
man only as there is historic preparation for it in his 
own mind, and it suggests the eternities that are 
required to reduce principles to practice. Man creates 
nothing; he only finds something that was already 
aforetime. The facts and laws, as we call them, were 
ever what they are now. The pendulum — that pre- 
siding judge over the times and distances of the uni- 
verse — was in the Garden of Eden as truly as it is 
to-day in the national observatory. Electricity was as 
active when Abraham led his flocks and pitched his 
tents in Arabia as it is now. But primeval time had no 
preparation for an eight-day clock, and the magnetic 
telegraph would have increased Job's confusion. 

Nothing so impresses me as this human breadth of 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 263 

sympathy and powerful space-piercing spiritual vision 
in Jesus which enabled him to speak to simple minds, 
yet to reveal truth far beyond them, and even then to 
tell them that this was not all, but that one should 
come, when they were prepared to receive him, with 
heavenly manners, who would lead them farther than 
he could, and help them to do greater things than 
he did. The mind of Jesus is the encouragement of 
humanity, and the encouragement of that Church 
Universal which carries forever the ideals of human- 
ity in its breast. The progressive development of 
religion is concurrent with the life of the Son of man 
in his day. 

We must confess that religious opinions, talents, 
insights, sensibilities, are very much matters of con- 
stitution and temperament. There are those to whom 
truly spiritual and ideal views are impossible. There 
is such a thing as truth that men cannot bear. Have 
we not seen a decent everyday character that has lost 
headway, and been thrown into the trough of the sea, 
by views that were quite true to a mind that could 
receive them? The fault is not in the truth, but in the 
man. We hear of such a thing as dangerous truth ; but, 
if that means anything, it means dangerous as a 
spirited horse is dangerous to a timid and feeble rider. 
The great conservative instinct that makes men fear 
the influence of full-bloomed truth on the common 
mind is not all wrong, however it may be overdone by 
him who hugs the past. There is a great inertia in 



264 HORATIO STEBBINS 

human character that inspires a sympathetic mind 
with wise caution and careful fear, and the Son of man 
is no proselyter. Have we not, as moral and spiritual 
advisers, been compelled in all honesty to counsel some 
whose constitutional limitations were clearly marked 
to remain where they were? Have we not met those 
to whom to give what are to us most spiritual views of 
God and Christ and man were as useless as a sewing 
machine in the family Adam, or the Northwestern 
Railroad to Caesar for the invasion of Gaul? This is 
not pearls before swine that I am speaking of now. 
It is that breadth of moral sympathy that was in Jesus, 
the poetic insight of the Son of man, and the practical, 
plodding facts of human life and experience. It is a 
simple principle of common sense, but which has not 
had much recognition in religion. It is what makes 
Christianity the common law of human nature, in- 
cluding within itself every possible condition. 

This is the way of history, the way of progress, the 
way of evolution, the way of the Son of man, as I 
understand them. Happy are the men who have no 
conflict with their past, but go forward out of their 
past, carrying into the future the wisdom and truth 
they have won. 

The lively discussions in different quarters concern- 
ing the creed and the creeds, the revision or remodel- 
ing of them, are little more than the comparison of 
errors, and lack the creative spirit of the Son of man. 
As the immoralities of our time are meannesses rather 

\ 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 265 

than great crimes, so in religious thought and life there 
is much "See here !" and "See there !" instead of the 
lightning that lighteneth out of one part under heaven 
and shineth to the other part under heaven. I once 
knew a man who boasted that he could agree to any 
contract if he could have the writing of it. I can sign 
all the creeds in Christendom if I can have the inter- 
pretation of them. I feel very much toward them and 
their meaning as Augustine did about time. If you ask 
me, I do not know : if you do not ask me, I do know. 
Yet men of honor do not write agreements to be read 
between the lines. I could not do business or hire a 
man to saw a cord of wood or have a faithful maid in 
the kitchen on that plan. But I charge no man with 
dishonesty or prevarication in this matter. When I 
reflect on the variety of things that an honest man can 
do, from the United States Land Office to the New 
Theology, showing a versatility of resource with which 
no other talent bears comparison, I am careful how I 
charge men with religious dishonesty. I think that I 
do often see what I am bound to call intellectual and 
moral cowardice, and I am bound to confess that intel- 
lectual honesty is much more rare than moral honesty, 
owing to what seems to me some weakness of vision. 
Yet I am careful about calling men dishonest, though 
they do and say and believe that which I could not 
believe or say or do, to save my soul from hell. Haw- 
thorne's ancestor was as honest whipping a witch on 
the road from Boston to Salem as the genial writer of 



266 HORATIO STEBBINS 



"The House of the Seven Gables." Honesty! Yes, let 
us have it. And let us believe in it, in ourselves, and in 
our fellow-men. Let us be more than honest : let us be 
honorable. And let us remember that honesty, to be 
worthy of its name, to be worthy of anything above a 
kind of pitiful respect, must carry a light that flames 
upon its path like that light of the Son of man in his 
day, that flashes from horizon to horizon, and no 
tallow dip. Progress, growth, spiritual life — all ac- 
claim of faith and victory and glory — are in stand- 
ing by the Son of man in his day, giving blessing and 
honor and power to the past for what it has done for 
the present and the future. Then the past is venerable 
and reverend, and through all its cruelties and igno- 
rances there is a gleam of tender, loving care — the 
present is lovely, as the newborn of the race come for- 
ward to their great inheritance, and the future is 
crowned with hope and faith in the common destiny of 
man. Men weep over the venerable symbols that are 
passing away, as if truth were dead and buried, having 
no resurrection. Far be it from me to speak with levity 
of any illustrious sentiment in which the heart of man 
finds expression. I call men my brethren of whatever 
name ; yet I do not intrude myself on them, or hang 
around them as one who would waste their time in 
getting acquainted, neither as one of their poor rela- 
tions ; yet I do not allow anybody to turn me out of the 
family. But when I read in the daily press how our 
brethren of the Presbyterians, in their Assembly, fell 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 267 



upon each other's necks and wept over the fading glo- 
ries of the creed, I should have been ashamed of my 
heart if I could not have been touched with that grief ; 
yet we cannot always control the law of association, 
and I thought of the man in New Hampshire, ninety- 
three years old, who wept because his father and 
mother were dead and he was left an orphan. I am 
told by ancient records that my English ancestor was 
of respectable stock and named for a Christian hero 
who suffered at the stake for his religious opinions. 
Some of my ancestor's descendants have been respect- 
able men, I am told — men of deep, religious convic- 
tions and bulky opinions. I am inclined to believe the 
tradition, and to be thankful for it. One of those men 
not far back held some public office when it was the 
fashion for men of authority, when on public duty, to 
wear the town-boots. I have a sincere respect for this 
memory and tradition of creed and boots ; and, if I had 
them, boots and creed, I would send them, with a 
touch of pathos in my heart, to the World's Fair. 
Why should I not? I could not wear either, but the 
memory and the sentiment I would keep forever. In 
these times of old faith and new knowledge, times of 
disturbance, times of village surprises, and " See here !" 
and "See there !" how steady is the head and heart of 
the Son of man in his day ! How high and how clear 
the light streams from east to west, from north to 
south ! The Son of man, like the true poet that he is, 
shines and is content. The realms of reason are his ; 



a68 HORATIO STEBBINS 



there only can his beams penetrate. The human heart 
is his : there only can love find its native clime. Fear 
not : be not afraid. 

It cannot be doubted that this new knowledge that 
is coming in so steadily has some advantages. And 
some think that it has the whip-hand of religion. But 
they mistake the theme. Physical science is concerned 
with things, and works with its own tools. It has the 
great advantage of the physical origin of language, and 
can say exactly what it means and all it means. It 
starts at full speed. But in all our language about man, 
his nature and being, the words do not contain all the 
truth. No lover can put half his heart into his letters, 
but he can make a chemical formula that will include 
every item of the analysis. Thus the attempt to reduce 
religion to terms of scientific exactness — that is, to 
express it in forms that will mean the same thing to all 
minds — must always fail. Physical science starts at 
full speed ; but, in this race, it is the long, hot, dusty 
road and dog-trot that win. Physical science is the 
helper of religion ; and the Son of man in his day will 
find no controversy, nor will he have any conflict con- 
cerning the relative rank of persons and things. 

We are moving forward, it is said, from liberty to 
unity. What is the center of that unity ? Has there a 
norm of organization been found ? The dream of union 
and peace has been the vision of prophets and seers 
from age to age, and the vision is yet unfulfilled. Is 
there a church that offers honest and unselfish hospi- 



THE SON OF MAN IN HIS DAY 269 

tality large enough for all ? There is none, unless it be 
the realization of Renan's ' ' Apocalypse/ 1 when the 
Roman Catholic Church shall rouse herself to say: 
"My children, all here below is but symbol and dream. 
The only thing that is clear in this world is a tiny ray 
of azure light which gleams across the darkness, and 
seems as if it were the reflection of a benevolent will. 
Come to my bosom : forge tfulness is there. For those 
who want fetishes, I have fetishes. To whomsoever 
desires good works, I offer good works. For those who 
wish the intoxication of the heart, I have the milk of 
my breasts which intoxicates. For whoso want love 
and hate also, I abound in both ; and, if any one de- 
sires irony, I pour it from a full cup. Come one and all : 
the time of dogmatic sadness is past. I have music and 
incense for your burials, flowers for your weddings, the 
joyous welcome of my bells for your newly born." 

But the Roman Catholic Church will not say so ; 
and, if she should, the Protestant world would not 
accept her invitation; for no one can settle that ques- 
tion but the Son of man in his day. Our duty, then, is 
plain — to stand by him until his light and truth shall 
fill the sphere. 



THE END 



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